A Hurricane of Fraud…

Earlier this week, a report was released by the Federal Emergency Mangement Agency (FEMA) detailing what disaster relief funds provided to Hurricane Katrina survivors were spent on. Among the items purchased by the FEMA-issued debit cards were New Orleans Saints season tickets, strip clubs, tropical vacations, “Girls Gone Wild” videos, champagne and sex change operations. Some hurricane survivors in the Gulf Coast region apparently looked at the relief as “free money” and spent it on lavish items that were pretty unnecessary—to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars.
According to the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times, the “victims” aren’t the ones who should be blamed. It’s the fault of FEMA for not supervising.
Los Angeles Times | Editorials | A hurricane of fraud?
In the estimation of the Times, the victims are the ones who have been wronged by receiving this money in the first place. We should have expected that this would happen when we just give people a bundle of cash. They also don’t think that $1,500,000,000.00 in wasted taxpayer dollars is really that big of a deal.

Some misuse of the FEMA-issued debit cards, however, is hardly shocking. The aim of the $2,000 cards was to give individuals immediate aid to be spent according to his or her judgment, rather than earmarking items that the government guessed would be of greatest assistance. For every “Girls Gone Wild” video purchased, thousands of families used their cards for clothing, food and temporary shelter without having to deal with federal red tape. Bad spending decisions are an unfortunate side effect of a clever and responsive policy.

So, we’re just supposed to expect that this is going to happen, apparently. The “victims” aren’t responsible for their own actions because we’ve enabled them. Like alcoholics with a bottle of hooch, we’ve given these people a debit card with a $2,000.00 limit and it’s our fault for trying to help them out. Granted, a free debit card probably wasn’t the best idea on the planet. The bulk of purchases in the program were for actual disaster-related necessities. Overall, the program was a success in helping people help themselves–and that should be the goal of any Federal disaster relief program, thanks.
But, the Los Angeles Times in their moral superiority believes that the Katrina survivors are above reproach–particularly when they’re involved in fraud. We taxpayers are apparently supposed to just be alright with the fact that a billion and a half of our hard-earned dollars have just been wasted.
I’m all for helping people in a time of need. We all are. I don’t think that any of us are in favor of sex-change operations financed by government assistance—and that’s not the fault of you, me, FEMA or anyone else but the person who spent the money in the first place. Shame on the Times for suggesting otherwise. The problem wasn’t oversight, it was personal responsibility…or an alarming lack thereof.
But, I’m not shocked at the stance the Los Angeles Times takes. Blaming eveyrone but the person responsible is classic liberalism and I expect nothing less from them, and neither should you.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com