Dumb Romney!!!elpless in a Hurricane: Mitt Romney's Five Dumbest Budget Cuts
Mitt Romney greets supporters during a campaign rally in Ohio.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
October 30, 2012 9:00 AM ET
As Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast this week, the so-called "Frankenstorm" exposed the dark underbelly of Mitt Romney's plans to delegate core federal responsibilities to the states and to blindly impose a 5 percent, across-the-board budget cut to all discretionary programs "excluding military."
The true impact of a Romney presidency would be a federal government ill-equipped to coordinate a response to a regional natural disaster like this one, and agencies hobbled in their ability to provide storm forecasting, emergency housing – even Superfund cleanup in the toxic aftermath of a storm.
Here are the five most damaging cuts that a President Romney would seek "on Day One" from the agencies that are essential for federal storm response:
1) FEMA: Cut $500 million
Romney's budget cut would slash Federal Emergency Management Agency funding by nearly half a billion dollars. And the Republican nominee has gone even farther, suggesting a far more radical plan for FEMA: disband it and throw its duties back to the states. Asked about the agency during an early GOP primary debate, Romney said that disaster relief was a state responsibility, and might even be privatized. "Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states," Romney said, "that's the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that's even better."
2) NOAA: Cut $255 million
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is responsible for daily weather forecasts and severe storm warnings. It runs the National Weather Service and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; those amazing pictures you've been seeing of Sandy from space are courtesy of NOAA. The agency also operates a "hurricane hunter" fleet of jets and turboprops that fly directly into hurricanes to measure their intensity. Most important: NOAA coordinates federal climate science investigating the links between global warming and severe weather events.
3) SuperFund: Cut $60 million
Sandy has already caused flooding of Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, an EPA-designated "SuperFund" site contaminated with toxins ranging from PCBs to heavy metals to untreated sewage. Superfund cleanup is chronically underfunded, resulting in painfully slow remediation work. The agency is just getting around to funding cleanup of toxics stirred up by the monster tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri, in May 2011. And Mitt Romney wants to slash funding for this crucial work.
4) Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Cut $50 million
There were 16 nuclear power plants in the path of Hurricane Sandy. Enough said.
5) HUD: Cut $2.05 billion
The department of Housing and Urban Development rebuilds housing and restores neighborhoods in the aftermath of catastrophic storms. HUD spent more than $16 billion to help the Gulf Coast recover from Katrina in 2006. Under a Romney presidency, those efforts will be seriously hampered.
BONUS CHOPPING BLOCK
These cuts are just the beginning. On his website, Romney insists his aim is to wield a much heftier budget ax – "capping non-security discretionary spending below 2008 levels." Who knows what other critical federal services he'd eliminate or drastically reduce?
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/helpless-in-a-hurricane-mitt-romneys-five-dumbest-budget-cuts-20121030#ixzz2ApC7M49x
Romney Wants To Disband FEMA- Do You Think N.J. Governor Chris Christie Agrees With The GOP Today?
During one of the 2011 GOP presidential debates sponsored by CNN, Mitt Romney argued that the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency should be disbanded and replaced by handing over the responsibility to the states to deal with their own emergencies.Here's what the Republican candidate had to say when asked whether FEMA should be shut down:
"Absolutely. Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that's even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?"
When moderator, John King, responded "Including disaster relief, though?", Mitt Romney had this to say—
"We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids.It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we'll all be dead and gone before it's paid off. It makes no sense at all.
While it's swell that Governor Romney is concerned about the future of our kids, at this very moment —as the densely populated Northeastern section of the USA is experiencing a catastrophic disaster at a result of Hurricane Sandy—I can tell you that millions of people in the line of this extraordinary and unprecedented storm are also very much concerned for their children. However, these folks do not have the luxury today of worrying about the future of their kids. The concern these people are experiencing is today..right now…immediate…and very, very real.
For these people, the need for FEMA is neither political nor abstract.
So, wouldn't you imagine that the Governor might want to respond accordingly?
Not so much. When given the opportunity to back off the position earlier today, Gov. Romney remained resolute in his commitment to scrap FEMA.
Suddenly, however, it turns out that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie—an ardent supporter and surrogate for Governor Romney who has backed the candidate's rhetoric at every opportunity—sees considerably more value in the federal emergency agency now that his own state is ground zero for this disaster.
Indeed, Christie has, today, gone on record making it very clear that he not only wants FEMA aid, he wants it now and he is in no mood to see New Jersey residents get caught in the political cross-fire as Republicans in Congress look to find offsetting budget cuts to pay for the huge amount of aid that FEMA will be expected to provide in the face of what looks to be a $100 billion dollar financial catastrophe.
""Nobody was asking about offsetting budget cuts in Joplin," Christie said, referring to the tornado-ravaged town in Missouri town, "and I don't want to hear about the fact that offsetting budget cuts have to come first before New Jersey citizens are taken care of."
Actually, Governor Christie has this wrong as his fellow Republican, House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor—a man who never met a disaster that he much cared about because he has never met one where his own constituents were in serious distress—required offsets before he would agree to help out the stricken people of Joplin, Missouri.
But Christie was just getting wound up—and we all know how it goes when Chris Christie gets wound up.
Resp0nding to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's latest statement that he is not interested in FEMA helping unless and until offsets can be located, Christie had this to add—
"You want to figure out budget cuts, that's fine," Christie said. "You're going to turn it into a fiasco like that debt-limit thing where you're fighting with each other for eight or nine weeks and you expect the citizens of my state to wait? They're not gonna wait, and I'm going to fight to make sure that they don't."
Gov. Christie noted that this was not a partisan issue. To further drive home the point, he introduced New Jersey Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg to add his own two cents on the subject.
"We are gonna fight like hell against those who want to cut back on FEMA"s funding," the Senator said. "We cannot do this without lots of money."
Indeed, so concerned is Governor Christies that the feds be there for him now that he needs them, he went so far as to compliment President Obama yesterday saying, ""I appreciated the president's outreach today in making sure that we know he's watching this and is concerned about the health and welfare and safety of the people of the state of New Jersey."
Isn't it amazing how smaller government becomes far less desirable, even to Governor Christie, when the catastrophe at hand is your own?
UPDATE: Governor Romney has issued a statement where he now tries to have it both ways. What a surprise. Check this out -
"Gov. Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions," Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said in a statement. "As the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities, and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA," he added.
Daniel Elombah
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