Deficits and Natural Disasters

Hurricane Irene made landfall around the 6th anniversary of another devastating storm: Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina revealed that an underfunded FEMA with an ignorant leader (Michael Brown - "Brownie...you're doing a heck of a job") can lead to both environmental and human catastrophes. Katrina also shot holes into the political orthodoxy over cutting government spending, or what is known as "starving the beast."

We are dealing with monumental and unprecedented deficits. The financial situation that the U.S., and the world, is facing has not been seen since the Great Depression. A combination of austerity measures and spending cuts has been proposed to bring the country back to fiscal health. In previous blogs, I harped on the affects that budget cutting will have on local governments, unemployment and how a balanced approach is necessary.

Nothing is worse than the ignorance and short sightedness embodied in the recent proposal by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on dealing with FEMA costs over Hurricane Irene. Cantor vowed to find "dollar-for-dollar" cuts in other programs in order to cover the cost of Hurricane Irene. His aim is to not increase the deficit.

Really?!

You're talking about deficits when people are losing their homes and their livelihood? You dare mention "fiscal health" when people are dying? Were you not around when an underfunded FEMA created the fiasco that was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina?

I don't get it. I really don't get it. These costs are not intangibles. These costs are helping people survive. These costs are the salaries of rescue workers who are delivering food and water to 12 communities cut off by flood waters in the state of Vermont. These costs are going to airlift stranded people in New Jersey, New York and Virginia. These costs save lives.

Bernie Sanders, Senator from Vermont (and one of my favorites - also Jewish), characterized this situation best. He told MSNBC that he had been to the stranded communities around his state and helped drop supplies to devastated families. He said that the U.S. will become the laughing stock of the world if we don't start investing in infrastructure. These floods have exacerbated the problems associated with an already crumbling road and highway system. More specifically, he lambasted Cantor for being a divisive force. He talked of a "United" States being "one nation" whose purpose is to protect the health and well being of its people.

Sanders is spot on. Our infrastructure is abysmal, and investments will put hundreds of thousands of people back to work. More importantly, if we let this obsession, this cult, this stubborn orthodoxy of deficits blind us from helping our fellow Americans during natural disasters, then we need to reevaluate our priorities.

To give some perspective - we spent $700 million/week on wars and FEMA's ENTIRE budget is only $800 million.