FEMA dollars go to the wealthy

sigh, so easy to cheat the system...

 

Bless the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Last year the Bush Bros. rained so much undeserved money on so many people---and it was publicized---they had to publicly plead with people to give it back. Bet that was successful.

I see they learned a lot from it, too.

 

All the really big government money always goes to the wealthy, and to big corporations. Always has. Regardless of which party is in power or who's the president. The surprising thing here is they let some of it go to the upper middle class instead of keeping it all for the super-rich.

 

Same old $hit, different day. The super-rich aren't buying a Prius. They are buying cars like this one:

http://priuschat.com/253-MPH-and-Still-a-L...ate-t13534.html

They couldn't care less about a measly $3100 tax credit. When someone is paying $100,000 or more in taxes, why would a little thing like this matter.

Anyone who can afford a Prius will get the credit. If you NEED the credit in order to buy a Prius, then you can't afford the car. Plan and simple. There are cheaper cars out there. If Rolex gave me a tax credit, I could buy a really nice watch. If you can't afford it, then it's a luxury.

Yes, the rich get stuff and the poor don't. That's why they are rich and poor. If it was the other way around then there wouldn't be anything to complain about. I read the article, and from what I saw, no one cheated the system. The system may be flawed, requiring you to have the cash up front, but the surgeon and lawyer didn't cheat the system. Do I think it's right the sick kid had to suffer like that? Of course not! But don't go and blame the Bushes for it, they didn't create the problem. The system has been in place in Florida for a long time. I know, I've lived here a long time, and been through many hurricanes.

And the Sun-Sentinel helpfully broke down the disbursements by zip code. What a usless load of crap. So now everyine in a particular zip code is rich, huh? I guess tha last quote of the story slipped by them. “Not everybody on the island is filthy rich." What a usless statistic. Can't believe they wasted their time. I grew up in a little town. Population 28,000. In the middle of this town was a really nice development of huge houses. Lots of money there. Now if you were to average the income of the zip code, which happened to be the whole town, you'd get a pretty high number. Is it representative? Hell no. The majority of this town was pretty close to the poverty line, or only marginally above it. But thius small group of much higher paid individual made it seem liek the zip code was much wealthier. Useless crap statistics. Way too much of them.

 

I've been thinking about this some more...

While I don't necessarily agree with it, and I wouldn't do it myself, I really don't see anything wrong with people of ANY economic level applying for FEMA disaster funds.

As an example, someone super-rich could probably afford to hire a private security firm to protect them. Does that mean it's wrong for tehm to also use the police? How about ambulance services. You can hire an ambulance service and have your own private ambulance too. So the super-rich shouldn't use 911.

The answer to these is of course not. By paying taxes in this country you are entitled to certain benefits and services provided by the government, either local or federal. No matter how much money you make, you are entitled to use these. While the system may not be perfect, it does work most of the time.

Of course there are always stories like the ones in the article, if there weren't the papers would be filled with real news.

 

I could have gotten a chainsaw after Wilma, and had it paid by FEMA, but I decided not to. Several friends came over with their's instead, but it was tempting, if nothing else than to have it again next year for when the last of my trees get totaled. (I've been hit directly by 3 in the last 15 months) And besides, I do still feel a little guilty for FEMA paying for the generator last year, but I was out for 12 days, and the $800 didn't come close to paying for the generator I purchased. The whole thing with FEMA last year was kind of strange. The FEMA guys practically begged friends of mine to put in claims. Do they work on commission? :blink:

 

If you read the article you would have noticed that strangely both the surgeon and the lawyer got the same exact amount reimbursed to them, $836. Curious. Seems that FEMA probably had a fixed dollar value for genertor purchase reimbursement, rather than what they actually paid. As such, I stand by my statement, "no one cheated the system." I never said it was right or wrong that he got more than he paid. Is it OK with me? Well that really doesn't matter does it. It's up to FEMA.

Tellyou what, though. These past two years we've benn very lucky to not get any significant damage from any of the mutitude of huricanes that hit my state. However, if we do get hit next year, I have no qualms about getting reimbursed for any purchases such as generator or chainsaw. God knows we've paid more than enough in taxes, and it's about time we get a piece of what we've paid for.

 

FEMA has been elevated in the last few years as somehow representing the "compassion" of the federal government. Under President Clinton, the Director of FEMA was a close friend who enjoyed access to the President ... almost the "coin of the kingdom" in presidential politics. So he was incredibly successful in really transforming the agency into a rapid response, money distribution machine, and he was pretty good at targeting that money where it was needed. The post had always been a low level position before that, and it reverted to that when the Clinton Administration left office. So the natural comparisons to the Clinton Administration's handling of these things made the successors work harder to throw money at any problem as fast as they could, and if criticism came (as it always does from any official of the other party) the largess increased remarkably ... and foolishly.

I'm not sure the federal government should even be in the business of providing aid to citizens of the various states, but it is the system we have. Its a little ironic to hear about means testing for people who have lost their homes.

 

People should have a conscience...all of them rich or poor. I do not blame either a democrat or republican government trying to help out during national disasters. Did not hear complaints about the 9-11 relatives who ALL got over a million dollars.. If someone files with FEMA and TELLS THE TRUTH., that is the only way it is fair. The ones who cheat will pay for theirs, soooner or later. We saw some already..I was an unpaid first responder, did my duty, and was in my home 1 1/2 days after our hurricane. I told FEMA the truth, and did not qualify for immediate $2000 assistance. Later FEMA looked at my receipts, and the insurance coverage I had, and settled FAIRLY with me. The ones who requested (and WERE LYING) immediate money are being asked now to submit receipts., and also accepting this immediate assistance closes their case if they cannot furnish receipts + they have to pay back if they have spent less then $2,000. Yea some think they got away with it..nope..it will come back and bite. People below the poverty line and who do not pay taxes are the only ones not questioned, and YES FEMA does have access to IRS FILES. This procedure has not changed since Clinton., all Bush did was to authorize immediate assistance to those who really needed it. And the ones who have lied about it will slowly be held to account. I think that is very fair.

 

Its just government programs way of keeping themselves in existence.
If they don't use their money, their existence can't be justified and it looks like they are not doing any good.

I've seen welfare officials tell people exactly what to put on the paperwork to get accepted... even though they knew it wasn't accurate.

Thats why government needs to be trimmed from time to time, otherwise thier programs become dinosaurs that only pull tax money to accomplish nothing.

Fema is so big and powerful, yet so immature... its like baby bam bam, accomplishing very little for real good and alot get past it. Who knows how much money it will waste before it grows up?

 

Now I paid no where near $100,000 in taxes, but I'm not eligible for the tax credit in '06. I'm just guessing that if someone paid that much tax, they probably have the AMT so they don't get the credit.

 

No, we didn't pay $100,000 in taxes, but like you, it made no difference if I picked up my Prius now or after Jan 1st.

People who are generally considerd "rich" can't use the tax credit.