The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, recently had a
confrontation with a demonstrator when giving a speech. Christie tends to like these
confrontations because it gives him an opportunity to run his mouth and look
like a tough guy who is standing his ground.
The protester was James Keady, who is something of a
political activist. And while I’m
not here to defend everything he stands for, Keady brings up some interesting
points about Christie and his handling of Hurricane Sandy funds.
Keady claims that Christie and his administration have
mismanaged funds that were specifically designated to help Hurricane Sandy
victims. Keady says that Christie
is sitting on about $800 million of the $1.1 billion that is supposed to help
residents that suffered losses from the storm.
While Christie had some choice comments to make about Keady,
he didn’t really address the accusations at hand. Christie has done plenty of self-promotion for his handling
of Hurricane Sandy, which includes spending the government funds.
Of course, I am not one to advocate that the government
spend more money, if that is in fact the case here. But it does show another example of a politician who is
misleading the public in what he says.
Hurricane Relief
After Hurricane Sandy hit, we immediately heard the cries
for government assistance, which included federal government assistance. Aside from being unconstitutional,
sending federal funds to a stricken area is a bad idea. But it is automatic for some people to
instantly demand government help whenever there is a problem.
It is a bit ridiculous that American taxpayers are forced to
pay for the cleanup in the northeast because of a hurricane. The same goes for anywhere in the
U.S. It is a constant game of
shifting money around and helping the politically connected.
Communities don’t get cleaned up because of government –
particularly the federal government.
It is charity and people voluntarily pitching in to help. There is also the function of
insurance.
I don’t understand why homeowners need to get big checks
from the government. Don’t they
have homeowners insurance? Don’t the
businesses have insurance?
Don’t get me wrong here. If the government is going to waste taxpayer money, I would
rather see it go to hurricane victims than going towards the NSA to spy on us
or going towards drones that drop bombs on wedding parties in Afghanistan.
But regardless of what you think of using federal funds for
disaster relief, we can be certain that there is a lot of fraud and corruption
involved. We saw this with
Hurricane Katrina. There were
endless stories about people living rent-free in hotel rooms for long periods
of time. There were stories about
people using their Katrina money to go to strip clubs.
I suppose Keady, this political activist, should be careful
what he asks for. If the
government tries to spend $800 million, who knows how many more problems and
bureaucratic programs will be created that will ultimately harm people. Sometimes the best we can hope for is
that the money is just wasted without doing further damage.
Americans are incredibly charitable. If almost half of their money wasn’t
taken from them at all levels of government, then they would be far more
charitable than they already are.
You don’t need to force people to be charitable, or else it then ceases
to be charity.
If the politicians are really so caring, they should volunteer
their own time and money, instead of forcing others to do so. But Christie was too busy getting his
photo-op hugging Obama.