Farewell FEMA - good luck states!

You know who basically wants to disband FEMA and leave everything to the states.

He pledged much more money to North Carolina.

And maybe some money to California if the increase they flow of water from the north to the south, stop trying to save a fish and get voter ID cards.

Without wishing ill to anyone, I think the world needs a natural disaster at Mara-lago (sp?).  An earthquake, or a swarm of locusts perhaps? Perhaps then ‘certain people’ would understand the need for a nation-wide, coordinated disaster response team.

oh, wait.  I’ve just remembered: those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat mistakes from the past

ETA to fix spelling. Autocorrect is annoying.

joanne said:

Without wishing ill to anyone, I think the world needs a natural disaster at Mara-lago (sp?).  An earthquake, or a swarm of locusts perhaps? Perhaps then ‘certain people’ would understand the need for a nation-wide, coordinated disaster response team.

oh, wait.  I’ve just remembered: those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat mistakes from the past

ETA to fix spelling. Autocorrect is annoying.

Or the sea turning red! Yes, something Biblical in keeping with his newfound piety.

A lot of the liberal commentary I've been seeing on this implies that Trump wants to leave the financing of disaster aid to the states. This does not appear to be true. What he appears to be proposing is a disbanding of FEMA as we know it and making the states beef up their own disaster agencies to take over disaster management, but the federal government would still provide financial disaster aid.

Make no mistake though - this is still a profoundly stupid proposal and it's another piece of the project to dismantle the federal government.

Grover Norquist's long time dream is coming to fruition:

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the
size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

Let’s be clear.  If FEMA is disbanded, some private company will hire key individuals, build the same rapid response capabilities, and sell them to the states at higher prices, while lining someone’s pockets and paying lobbyists. States will get less and pay more (and create their own standards for who is deserving of disaster relief). I tend to think any crucial business that our new government wants to get out of will be a major business opportunity for a well-connected supporter.  

susan1014 said:

Let’s be clear.  If FEMA is disbanded, some private company will hire key individuals, build the same rapid response capabilities, and sell them to the states at higher prices, while lining someone’s pockets and paying lobbyists. States will get less and pay more (and create their own standards for who is deserving of disaster relief). I tend to think any crucial business that our new government wants to get out of will be a major business opportunity for a well-connected supporter.  

I hadn't thought about the privatization angle. Good point and very likely to happen.

Also, I love how many of these radical first week proposals weren't even hinted at during the campaign, except, I guess, in Project 2025, which Trump told us he knew nothing about it, and the media dutifully followed along and stopped bringing it up.

drummerboy said:

A lot of the liberal commentary I've been seeing on this implies that Trump wants to leave the financing of disaster aid to the states. This does not appear to be true. What he appears to be proposing is a disbanding of FEMA as we know it and making the states beef up their own disaster agencies to take over disaster management, but the federal government would still provide financial disaster aid.

And that federal government aid apparently will have strings attached. He's suggesting he would help California with conditions. Voter :ID and rerouting water to flow to the Los Angelos area.

Morganna said:

drummerboy said:

A lot of the liberal commentary I've been seeing on this implies that Trump wants to leave the financing of disaster aid to the states. This does not appear to be true. What he appears to be proposing is a disbanding of FEMA as we know it and making the states beef up their own disaster agencies to take over disaster management, but the federal government would still provide financial disaster aid.

And that federal government aid apparently will have strings attached. He's suggesting he would help California with conditions. Voter :ID and rerouting water to flow to the Los Angelos area.

yes, that's why Trump does not intend to turn funding over to the states. He wants to be able to use federal funding as a cudgel.