As Hurricane Sandy Hits East Coast, Romney and Ryan Reiterate Their Aim to Privatize FEMA

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

 

While the East Coast was battered by one of the worst storms in centuries, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s preference for privatizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) became the focus of attention.

 

Common Dreams accused the Romney/Ryan ticket of wanting to dismantle FEMA, citing the Republicans’ previous remarks regarding funding for disaster relief.

 

At Think Progress, a liberal watchdog group, Scott Keyes wrote: “At least three times, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have publicly demanded that the federal government only disburse disaster relief funding if Congress agreed to offsetting budget cuts elsewhere. This would hold desperately-needed disaster relief funding hostage unless Congress agreed to cuts elsewhere in the budget, an extraordinarily difficult prospect even in normal circumstances.”

 

As for actually privatizing FEMA, Common Dreams pointed out that during the GOP primary, Romney said some duties handled by the federal government should be “sent back to the states,” if not the private sector.

 

Similarly, the Huffington Post reported that Romney, during the third presidential debate, said “absolutely” to the idea of shuttering FEMA and putting the states in charge of disaster relief.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

To Learn More:

Romney-Ryan: Send FEMA "Back to the Private Sector" (Common Dreams)

How Romney And Ryan Would Severely Impair Disaster Relief Efforts (by Scott Keyes, Think Progress)

Vast Hurricane Sandy Packs a Wallop for Millions Along East Coast and Beyond (by Joel Achenbach and Colum Lynch, Washington Post)

Federal Emergency Management Agency (AllGov)

 

Comments

Sorgfelt 12 years ago
Emergency management often deals with disasters of such a scale that individual states cannot handle it by themselves. It is reasonable to reorganize it to make it more effective, but dumping it all on the states, or worse, yet, privatizing it is unreasonable. The very idea of privatizing such a thing is ridiculous. I can see it now - "Sorry, you haven't paid your disaster relief insurance premium. You will get your water and emergency transportation when you pay up at the new inflated prices."

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