(CNSNews.com) – If Americans under the age of 18 were required as a group to pay off the entirety of the federal government’s debt in equal shares, each would now need to pay about $218,676.
Daily Archives: November 5, 2012
Romney Beats Obama… – YouTube
Bob weighs in.
The Economics of Disaster – Ron Paul
Hurricane Sandy was one of the worst natural disasters the east coast has ever seen. Clean-up and recovery will take months, if not years and estimates run in the tens of billions of dollars. Parts of New York and New Jersey will never be the same. Entire seashore communities have been wiped out, but the determination to rebuild has been lauded as courageous and admirable. Yet as with all natural disasters, Sandy raises uncomfortable questions about the extent to which taxpayers should fund the cleanup and the extent to which government programs create moral hazards.
For example, FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) are expected to pick up the tab for much of the flood damage caused by the hurricane. Of course this will mean more federal debt and inflation for the rest of us, since the program only has about $4 billion to work with and is already $18 billion in debt from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Many think there is a need for the government to provide flood insurance of this kind. After all, the market would never provide insurance in flood prone areas at an affordable price. But shouldn’t that tell us something?
Shouldn’t that tell us that it is a losing proposition to insure homes in coastal areas and flood plains often threatened by severe and destructive weather patterns? And if it’s a losing proposition, should taxpayers subsidize the inevitable losses arising from federal flood insurance?
The NFIP disguises the real cost of flood insurance in flood prone areas, which influences homebuilding and sales in such areas. Recklessly taking unwise risks when risk is underpriced is known as moral hazard. When politicians decide that private insurance premiums are too high, as with houses built in flood plains, the solution is to under price the risk through federal subsidies. The obvious and expected outcome is more danger to life and limb when disaster strikes.
Even NFIP has been forced to raise rates significantly in coastal areas, and is now dropping second homes from coverage altogether,
Many assume it is compassionate to entrust government central planners with disaster recovery. However, the greatest compassion brings results, not just good intentions. And we’ve seen how bureaucratic organizations like FEMA mismanaged recovery and relief in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Ike. Organizations such as the Red Cross and private companies like Home Depot and Duracell have already stepped in admirably to help those in need, and we can only hope FEMA has learned this time not to impede and frustrate private efforts as they have in the past.
Above all, my thoughts and prayers are with the victims of Hurricane Sandy in this tremendously difficult time and hope they can get their lives put back together as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
SEAL’s father Charles Woods on Hannity: WH officials “murdered” my son – YouTube
The father of a former Navy SEAL killed in the Libya terror attack last month said Friday that U.S. officials who denied a request for help while the diplomatic compound in Benghazi was under attack “are murderers of my son.”
Charles Woods was reacting to accounts by Fox News sources that a request from the CIA annex for backup was denied by U.S. officials. His son, Tyrone Woods, was killed in the Sept. 11 assault.
“They refused to pull the trigger,” Woods said. “Those people who made the decision and who knew about the decision and lied about it are murderers of my son.”
Woods said he forgives whoever denied the apparent request, but he urged them to “stand up.”
Sources also said Tyrone Woods and others, who were at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. consulate, ignored orders by their superiors to stand down and not go to the consulate to help. Woods went to the consulate, and hours later he was killed back at the annex.
Charles Woods said his son’s action “does not surprise me.”
“I wish that the leadership in the White House had the same level of moral courage and heroism that my son displayed,” he said.
via SEAL’s father Charles Woods on Hannity: WH officials “murdered” my son – YouTube.
Big Brother (Homeland Security) Keeps Going Local | The Clyde Fitch Report
President Obama is looking to further tighten the federal grip on a functioning America for the sake of “security,” this time getting more heavily involved in state and local private operations.
Continued:
via Big Brother (Homeland Security) Keeps Going Local | The Clyde Fitch Report.
An exasperating interview with Senate leaders – 60 Minutes Overtime – CBS News
Steve Kroft conducted a very tense interview this week on 60 Minutes. He brought together the two leaders of the U.S. Senate, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican Mitch McConnell, for their first joint interview.
“It was very chilly,” Kroft told Overtime’s Ann Silvio in the above video. “They did not look at each other once during the course of the interview.”
“They kept saying ‘my good friend, Harry’ or ‘my good friend, Mitch,’ but it didn’t seem very genuine.”
The Senate has become a dysfunctional place, filled with politicians on the extreme Left and Right who can’t or won’t reach a compromise for the public good, Kroft says. “It’s clearly not a fun place, and there are a lot of people that are very unhappy, particularly the new group of congressmen. A number of people have told us that they’ve come in and said, ‘What am I doing here?'”
COMMENT
Listen to Kroft’s analysis of his joint interview with Senate leaders, and tell us what you think of the situation in the comment section. Is the solution, as Kroft told us, to simply vote these guys out and elect better Senators? Or is the U.S. Senate and its system of rules and procedures broken?
via An exasperating interview with Senate leaders – 60 Minutes Overtime – CBS News.
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