When Will We Quit Accepting Other People’s Risk?
After my short Christmas break, I’m back to once again pontificate on any and all things political. I hope your holiday was rewarding, restful, and reinvigorating. Perhaps as you sat around the house not doing much of anything, you thought of what it would be like to spend every day in repose and relaxation–just like members of Congress. Most people consider the 112th Congress to have been the most dysfunctional and least productive decision-making body in history. I would have to agree.
They did, however, achieve something–they kept us from going off the fiscal cliff. I’m thinking that things might have been better if they had taken the plunge and actually achieved progress toward solving the deficit and providing real solutions to the problems that plague our nation. Instead, the “crisis” was averted and the can was kicked down the road for another day when perhaps intelligent, pragmatic, and reasonable people will fill the halls of our legislative branch of government and bring real leadership back to Washington.
Today, Congress actually accomplished something else . . . they gave almost $10 billion to people who chose to put themselves into danger and invest in some of the most risky and challenging real estate in the U.S. No, I’m not talking about New Orleans although I whined about that too when Congress sent $51 billion to provide aid and recovery largely to lands that are in mapped floodplains and are declared hazardous upon the purchase of the land and property within them. I heard no general outcry and am not surprised that those who are affected by Sandy are also looking to the teat of Uncle Sam to give them their Christmas gifts (they want over $60 billion). What saddens me is that we didn’t learn anything since 2005 and continue to go into debt paying for the stupidity of others.
Look, I’m not saying that there should not be relief for victims of disasters. Clearly, the federal government has a responsibility to assist in disaster relief and to help finance the construction of necessary infrastructure and facilities. My beef is that 7 years ago, we rebuilt a hazardous condition at taxpayers expense–$50 billion later, we still can make no assurances that the investment will pay off and that the people of New Orleans will be safe in future storms. Now we do the same thing, spending even more money to rebuild and place people back into harms way in New Jersey and New York. Stupid. What makes me more angry is that the supposed conservative champion Chris Christie is in the front of the money mongers yelling at the conservatives in Congress who are justifiably slow in handing out this massive amount of money that could just as easily get washed away in the next storm.
There is a fundamental problem in our society that must be resolved before there will be any tangible change in our deficit spending–a lack of backbone. That’s right, nobody in Washington is willing to say no to spending because it makes people mad and might make them lose elections. So what. Lose an election and let the millions of hands that are extended for handouts actually go to work and accomplish something for themselves. New York and New Jersey, find a way to pay for your own disaster relief in much the same way that San Francisco was required to finance reconstruction after the 1906 earthquake that caused an estimated $400 million in damages–$9 billion in today’s dollars–(wikipedia) but only received about $9 million in aid from other states and the federal government. (http://mceer.buffalo.edu/1906_Earthquake/additional_information/earthquake-facts.asp)
You live near the ocean, you accept the economic and social benefits–and you should bear the risk rather than add to our deficit and make our grandchildren pay for your stupidity.
Enough said.
O’Dowd
O'Dowd Politics 