Axe FEMA, Romney Says — as Sandy Looms

Because some Senator's wife's second cousin is a third tier bureaucrat in FEMA and needs his ticket punched as a "managing director" or some other such title.

 

IMO 99% of FEMA and other like federal government programs need to be pushed down to the lowest local and state levels where the management of programs can be more effective and efficient.

Why does it make any difference if the funding is paid by local and state government versus the federal government? All government funding is paid by taxpayers.

Why should the federal government be involved in removing trees, dealing with power outages, distributing water and food, coordinating emergency personnel and equipment, etc.? All of this and other duties need to be managed at the lowest possible levels.

In all probability, the local and state governments will also do a much better job than the Feds...and this is great!

Yes...there are great things the federal government can help with...but this should not include day-to-day operations...

 

Fair enough.

I am simply of the opinion that one highly trained, highly equipped organized "strike team" if you will, could more effectively handle any situation better than local officials, undoubtedly most of whom would lack the formal training or the benefit of experience to handle such situations.

Take Katrina for example, which was a (*)(*)(*)(*) up on every level. FEMA, certainly the locals, the state, all of it failed. No considering the condition that New Orleans was in, could the locals even do anything? Did they know how and have the resources to build temporary dams? The resources to take care of that many people?

I disagree, but I do appreciate your reasonable response.

 

LOL, yet the federal agencies are close due to weather! They might be open tomorrow or not who knows?

 

I know...Chris Christie and his praise of Obama. What a partisan hack!

And schools! Why close the schools? Make the kids swim to school!

 

I'm not real sure what schools has to do with federal agencies? Oh that is right some think all is federal government! LOL, yea get a life, the federal government is not needed nor wanted.

 

Bluesguy,
You are taliing crap. There are FEMA employees in NYC, but they are with city/state emergency groups to help assess damage, coordinate supplies, and to assist with NGO's issues with the storm. The vast majority of FEMA workers and volunteers are not located in NYC at this time because most are coming from out of the city or out of state. Second, you really need to learn what FEMA does. One thing they do is help with disasters. However, that is not the only thing they do. They also help with mitigation issues such as preparing and planning for future disasters. This includes setting up drills and test runs for state and local emergency groups in simulated disasters. They work with other state and federal agencies to either improve current procedures or develp new proceedures if a situation has not been encountered.

This idea that states should ony be the one also ignores that the vast majority of the work done by NGO's. NGO's rely heavily on FEMA. Eliminating FEMA will make NGO's less efficient to assist with disasters.

 

I'm wondering why people actually think this especially with natural disaster relief. What happens when the state agencies are underfunded because the state is poor and/or they are overwhelmed by the sheer size of the disaster?

 

combining the dept of homeland security and fema sounds like a disaster to me

it won't happen

 

I think FEMA IS under the DHS.

 

Too late. Bush combined them long ago. 2003, to be exact.


Thanks for showing us how smart you are!

 

That ain't FEMA. FEMA is an inefficient and non effective cow.

 

Thank you for that well needed dose of reality in a thread where FEMA is made out to be some paragon of heroic efficiency.
What they are is a bureaucratic f*ck up waiting to happen and I've posted a collection of horror stories from New Orleans where petty
bureau regulations and senseless slavery to mind numbing procedures often proved a greater barrier to aid than the hurricane itself.
They have an open check book and certainly don't mind spending money as if it didn't matter, because to them it doesn't!

Not even taking into account that FEMA's role has been watered down by the Department of Homeland Security (which they've been
put under) because the DHS is more concerned about the terrorist boogeyman than floods, fires and earthquakes, saying that FEMA is more efficient than an individual state could possibly be, dealing with their own state problems, is absurd purely due to FEMA's massive bureaucratic machine that makes everything they do so unwieldy and clumsy.

No one, if unbiased, can look back at Katrina and think FEMA did a good job. They were incredibly wasteful and the epitome of bureaucratic stupidity.

 

So rather then fix something that (when working well) is a great program, just scrap it and hope the states can fend for themselves? That sounds even more counter-productive.

 

Who the hell said scrap it with no contingency?

 

you think that wasn't a disaster?

 

Just because an agency performs an obvious public good does not mean it shouldn't be considered for cuts or even elimination. That thinking is why we can never cut government.

The money has run out. We the People are going to have to debate and figure out which "public good" is going to have to be abandoned by the State which means probably axing some departments, etc that performs concrete good. Otherwise we might as well just adop 75% tax rates.

 

I certainly agree with increased review and analysis of the tasks federal agencies. Doing so will eliminate bureaucratic lag, ineffectiveness, and corruption, leading to savings. Only if a federal agency is grossly unaccountable to the point that it can no longer fulfill basic operations should a federal agency be eliminated. If not, each agency requires restructuring to various extents.

 

When he put cronies in charge instead of experienced personnel, yes. That's not the case now.

 

If Mitt has his way, there will be millions of Katrina like victims. I wonder how many cons in the northeast are begging for FEMA help right now.

 

ROFL projecting an intent that is obviously not there. Can't deal with my actual purpose in pointing out that FEMA is NOT the first responder, does not direct local and state governments during such disasters.

Oh well.

Then present your evidence that the federal government does a better job and answer the question posed, why do you think someone coming in from Washington is going to be better trained and better equipped and has the local knowledge to handle such a thing over the local emergency management officials who work hand in hand on a daily basis with the local police and sheriffs and fire departments and hospitals and EMT's ands radios and TV stations and across city and county and state lines in coordinated training?

Thne provide the evidence that led you to that premise.

Actually it is based on the premise of YOUR argument which is poorly constructed and without any basis. If 51 stated emergency management agencies is bad then thousands of fire departments must be bad. Why not one BIG federal fire departments if your premise holds up to fact.

 

Clearly I have said throughout this thread that when applying logic, one agency is more efficient than 51. If you did not read my reasoning behind the obvious logical conclusion, then the fault is not mine if it is not clear to you.

 

I've been explaining this to Archer over many pages of this thread, but he's not having it. Regardless that some disasters cost far more than a states annual budget, regardless that natural disaters overlap many states... no no no, just get rid of it and hand power to the individual states.

Which of course makes no sense. When multiple states are involved, their efforts need to be prioritised and coordinated.

 

So rather than reduce the mamoth costs of the military, which serves little purpose apparently than protecting Euroweanies, you decide to cut the agency which actually helps Americans.

That litterally makes no sense.

 

And clearly that is a logical fallacy.

Prove it would be better to have one giant fire department covering the entire country that would be run out of Washington DC. It's YOUR logic not mine.

Why don't we just get rid of the 50 states and PR since having 51 different governments is worse than one big one out of Washington DC by YOUR logic.