FIX YOU

 “Lights will guide you home
 And ignite your bones
 And I will try to fix you”

                —Coldplay Lyrics from “Fix You”

It's come to this: the politicizing of a natural disaster and the call for Big Government to “Fix You”.

The Gray Lady has put her size three national newspaper circulation ranking foot down and the New Tork Times has declared “A Big Storm Requires Big Government” — a big bold headline with an even bigger bold assumption.

Here’s the editorial published October 29^th:

“Most Americans have never heard of the National Response Coordination Center, but they’re lucky it exists on days of lethal winds and flood tides. The center is the war room of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where officials gather to decide where rescuers should go, where drinking water should be shipped, and how to assist hospitals that have to evacuate.

“Disaster coordination is one of the most vital functions of “big government,” which is why Mitt Romney wants to eliminate it. At a Republican primary debate last year, Mr. Romney was asked whether emergency management was a function that should be returned to the states. He not only agreed, he went further.

 “‘Absolutely,’ he said. ‘Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.’ Mr. Romney not only believes that states acting independently can handle the response to a vast East Coast storm better than Washington, but that profit-making companies can do an even better job. He said it was ‘immoral’ for the federal government to do all these things if it means increasing the debt.

“It’s an absurd notion, but it’s fully in line with decades of Republican resistance to federal emergency planning. FEMA, created by President Jimmy Carter, was elevated to cabinet rank in the Bill Clinton administration, but was then demoted by President George W. Bush, who neglected it, subsumed it into the Department of Homeland Security, and placed it in the control of political hacks. The disaster of Hurricane Katrina was just waiting to happen.

"The agency was put back in working order by President Obama, but ideology still blinds Republicans to its value. Many don’t like the idea of free aid for poor people, or they think people should pay for their bad decisions, which this week includes living on the East Coast.

“Over the last two years, Congressional Republicans have forced a 43 percent reduction in the primary FEMA grants that pay for disaster preparedness. Representatives Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and other House Republicans have repeatedly tried to refuse FEMA’s budget requests when disasters are more expensive than predicted, or have demanded that other valuable programs be cut to pay for them. The Ryan budget, which Mr. Romney praised as ‘an excellent piece of work,’ would result in severe cutbacks to the agency, as would the Republican-instigated sequester, which would cut disaster relief by 8.2 percent on top of earlier reductions.

“Does Mr. Romney really believe that financially strapped states would do a better job than a properly functioning federal agency? Who would make decisions about where to send federal aid? Or perhaps there would be no federal aid, and every state would bear the burden of billions of dollars in damages. After Mr. Romney’s 2011 remarks recirculated on Monday, his nervous campaign announced that he does not want to abolish FEMA, though he still believes states should be in charge of emergency management. Those in Hurricane Sandy’s path are fortunate that, for now, that ideology has not replaced sound policy.”

Although Obama had nothing to do with this editorial, he will no doubt benefit from it. Using a natural disaster for his own good is something only the Riddler would do.

The Gray Lady can hide behind good intentions and “that ideology has not replaced sound policy” but this is purely and simply politics. The devil is in the hidden details in this editorial. The Gray Lady has a seat at the big table in this national poker-style main event and she’s playing her best hand.

It will come as no surprise when the NYT endorses Obama for re-election.

But I digress…

The majority of the American people want the government to fix things for them. Why not? That's what they have been force fed and swallowed in a big gulp. They believe they are entitled to entitlements. That’s what big government wants, too. And big government wants to get bigger, too.

Quo bono? Certainly not the taxpayers and most likely, not Mr. Romney.

One week away from the election, the disaster is still fresh and ballot-casting may not be on the minds of those who lost loved ones or those who lost their homes or were hit by a 14-foot sea wall. Our thoughts and prayers are with them all.

Total damages from Sandy are estimated to be $20 billion or more. Just add that to Big Gov's tab.

Remember, we are to believe this is all about saving lives and being sensitive. Clearly, that is something the NYT believes the Republican candidate is against. But the real story here is that this unprecedented national disaster is about to bring us an unprecedented election.

We don’t need the Weather Channel to forecast the outcome. We can watch it play out in real time.

June Smith founded this tribute website in honor of her late husband, Ron Smith, WBAL Talk Show Host, Emmy Award winner, and Baltimore Sun Columnist. Smith was a media titan in Maryland and beyond for almost forty years. Mrs. Smith is working diligently to raise one million dollars for the Ron Smith Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund at Johns Hopkins. She blogs for Red Maryland www.RedMaryland.Blogspot.com; her email is june@friendsofronsmith.com.

Comments

[Tony in Dallastown]

"the cash strapped states...". Are they kidding me? The States are in this state because an undo amount of tax dollars gets sent to Washington and then doled back out to the States. During this process the money gets reduced by all the hands that it travels through.

I know I am preaching to the choir here, but, If I pay federal taxes and state taxes and both have Emergency Management Agency's of some sort, but the State version gets funded by the Federal version then we have redundancy. Redundancy reduces efficiency and increases cost.

Eliminating the Federal version will allow the dollars to stay with the States and allow the States to cater the Agency to their needs. Nebraska doesn't need coastal resources and Maine probably won't need tornado detection equipment. Etc.

This is like the Friedman editorial about being Pro Life. Just mind numbing.

ARRRRRGGGHHH!

Ok, back to the show.

Keep on Reasoning.