Your Tax Dollars At Work

Last year when hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf coast, Americans called on their government to help the citizens who had been displaced by theses ferocious storms. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the aid that these people did or did not receive, and most of it focused on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). One of the programs FEMA instituted was giving victims of the storms debit cards that they could use to help pay their rent and rebuild their lives. This seemed like a great idea on paper, but to quote the great philosopher Huey Lewis, "we're not living in a perfect world."

A story came out today that really chapped my ample back side. A FEMA official went before Congress and told them that a study they had done regarding fraud with these debit cards was inaccurate. Congress' Government Accountability Office (GAO) had estimated that up to 1.4 billion of the money given for individual aid was spent for bogus reasons. If that wasn't bad enough, this FEMA official said that the GAO's estimate was way too low. Blame has been flying back and forth, but the bottom line is this. You and I have been paying for crooks to suck off the government teat, and no one at the top is watching our money.

Would you like to know how stupid your leaders are? Sure you would. Some of the victims had to be put in hotels. That's OK right? Sure it is, but FEMA was not only paying the hotels directly but then giving the "victims" money too. If that doesn't put a crease in your pants, how 'bout these little items that FEMA debit cards (your money) paid for?
-Five season tickets to the New Orleans Saints (I know the Saints suck, but that's not the point.)
-An all-inclusive, one week Caribbean vacation in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic. (I'll be lucky if I can go to Milwaukee for a long weekend.)
-Adult erotica products in Houston, and a "Girls Gone Wild" tape in Santa Monica,Ca. (Well, I don't know about this one. A guy has needs after all, especially when his home was destroyed.)
- A sex change. (It probably wasn't a good one, that would have involved airfare too. I guess they'll have to wait for the next storm.)

Other fun expenditures included paying people who used a cemetery as their address, giving someone rent assistance while at the same time paying for them to stay at a hotel in Hawaii, and even paying over two thousand dollars to an undercover agent who was using a bogus address.

I shouldn't be surprised by this, but I am. We all know the idiocy of bureaucracies, and the basic dishonesty of most people. I guess I'm just naive sometimes. I figure if we have an agency who's sole purpose is to hand out money to disaster victims, they'd, I don't know, keep an eye on where the money is going. Call me crazy, but if I just threw money around willy nilly, there would be some serious consequences. I'm also very disillusioned by the people who cheated with these cards. As I said, I have little to no trust for most people and this is just another reason why. You needed help, and someone helped you. Why do you need to rob the rest of us? It almost makes you want to tell the next victims to screw themselves. Go get your own porn you low life.

Well that's enough speechafyin' for one day. I'm off to burn a pile of money. At least that way I'll know who's wasting my cash. Later...Brian

(Thanks to AP for supplying some facts.)