I have a great idea...let us tie funding for federal emergencies to budget cuts elsewhere. This way, the next time a hurricane ravages the Easern coast, we will take money away from education, national defense, or social security in order to pay for assistance to all of the people and communities that have been hurt by it.
This sounds ridiculous, but it is exactly what top congressional republicans have been advicating, and an issue that almost shut down government YET AGAIN!!
Now for smaller emergencies, they are right, this can be done with minimal impact to the American people. But imagine if 8.0 + earthquake hits off the coast of California, and subsequent Tsunamis hit San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Imagine if the super volcano underneath Yellowstone National Park erupts. Yes, these are some of the worst-case scenerios, but given the recent geological activity worldwide in the past decade, neither is completely implausable. Either scenerio would cost billions, if not trillions of dollars worth of damage. Where would the federal government be able to cut spending in order to come up with enough money to support a natural disaster of this magnitude? It wouldn't be possible without completely decimating every other program that the government supports, which would further lead to a destruction of the economy.
Either our representatives in congress are not smart enough to plan for the worst case scenario, or they just don't care. My bet is on the latter. If their plan was approved, in case of a natural disaster the president would have to chose between assisting those affect and maintaining the services and programs that a majority of voting Americans have come to depend upon. He would be set up for failure. Then the Republicans can point him out and lay the blame solely at his feet.
We have come to a point where representatives will stop at nothing to see the other side fail, including a failure of the United States itself. How have we come to this point? Why do we let the crazies from both sides of the aisle control the decisions for the moderate majority?
We as Americans need to address this fundamental problem with government, and work towards a solution that promotes a healthy, operation government.
This sounds ridiculous, but it is exactly what top congressional republicans have been advicating, and an issue that almost shut down government YET AGAIN!!
Now for smaller emergencies, they are right, this can be done with minimal impact to the American people. But imagine if 8.0 + earthquake hits off the coast of California, and subsequent Tsunamis hit San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Imagine if the super volcano underneath Yellowstone National Park erupts. Yes, these are some of the worst-case scenerios, but given the recent geological activity worldwide in the past decade, neither is completely implausable. Either scenerio would cost billions, if not trillions of dollars worth of damage. Where would the federal government be able to cut spending in order to come up with enough money to support a natural disaster of this magnitude? It wouldn't be possible without completely decimating every other program that the government supports, which would further lead to a destruction of the economy.
Either our representatives in congress are not smart enough to plan for the worst case scenario, or they just don't care. My bet is on the latter. If their plan was approved, in case of a natural disaster the president would have to chose between assisting those affect and maintaining the services and programs that a majority of voting Americans have come to depend upon. He would be set up for failure. Then the Republicans can point him out and lay the blame solely at his feet.
We have come to a point where representatives will stop at nothing to see the other side fail, including a failure of the United States itself. How have we come to this point? Why do we let the crazies from both sides of the aisle control the decisions for the moderate majority?
We as Americans need to address this fundamental problem with government, and work towards a solution that promotes a healthy, operation government.
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