Hurricane Sandy is battering the Mid-Atlantic coast. Lower Manhattan is flooded. The Atlantic City Boardwalk has collapsed. 3.6 million are without power. The storm is so massive that fifteen states have requested national disaster area status making them eligible for FEMA assistance.
These are just the initial reports received immediately after Sandy made landfall at 8:00 this evening. First responders will have to wait until sunrise to assess the full damage of this storm. Federal, state and local officials will coordinate rescue and restoration efforts once storm has passed and the flood surge recedes.
As we watched the events of the day unfold we were struck by the co-operation between federal and local authorities in preparing for the storm. We watched as one governor after another took to the podium to update their constituents on the status of the storm. Politics took a back seat. Each and every one of them complimented the president and FEMA officials for their organization and support. There was genuine relief in knowing that the federal government was going to be there to help dig through the rubble once the storm had passed.
As we follow this story we can’t help but wonder how things on the ground would look if Mitt Romney had his way.
During one of the Republican Primary debates last June Romney was asked what he would do to keep FEMA solvent. Romney said that we should cut government spending and “send it back to the states…And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector…that’s even better.” When asked if he was serious about moving disaster relief to the states he said he was; “It’s simply immoral in my view for us to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids…” It’s not often that you hear a politician say that it is immoral to pay for disaster relief.
Romney is just one in a long line of conservatives who complain about big government but are the first to seek government assistance when disaster strikes. While Romney was Governor of Massachusetts he had to deal with two catastrophic events: one a serious storm and the other a chemical plant explosion. Each time Romney asked for federal assistance even though he was sitting on millions in unspent FEMA relief funds that Massachusetts was given for taking in displaced Katrina victims. He even refused to use the more than one billion he had in cash reserves. His spokesman said that the state would not consider spending its own money until it was clear how much cash the federal government would give.
Moving disaster relief to the states makes no sense. Natural disasters usually cross state boarders. They require a coordination of resources: police, fire, emergency rescue just to name a few. Without a unified chain of command you would have a disjointed response that would be ineffective, inefficient and could conceivably make a dangerous situation even worse. Hurricane Sandy has impacted at least 15 states. Imagine the inefficiency and confusion if 15 states were operating on their own.
And then of course there is the matter of how the states would pay for it. Many states do not have the financial resources to fund their own FEMA. Their only recourse would be to raise state, local and property taxes. Even that might not be enough to properly fund local needs. While this might make Romney’s federal budget look a little better; how does that benefit the local citizenry?
This is just another example of what happens when insane ideology and ridiculous rhetoric meet the real world.
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