ROMNEY WANTS TO DISBAND FEMA

During one of the 2011 GOP presidential debates sponsored by CNN, Mitt Romney argued that the Federal Emergency Management Agency 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.

Rick Ungar.Forbes