FEMA To The Rescue . . . Or Not

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – I bring that up not to demonize or vilify the actual people in FEMA doing the work but just to point out, to fund FEMA, you have to have an act of Congress and you have to launder the money.  Even from a practical, common sense, dollars and cents point of view, it is a waste of money.  The State of Colorado could have spent less of its own money doing its own emergency relief rather than sending tax dollars and laundering it through Mordor on the Potomac River, having another bureaucracy oversee it that’s not in Colorado, and then having to marshal the forces and transport them to Colorado.  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  I heard somebody who was from the Colorado version of FEMA.  He was just being effusive, just ebullient, just overflowing with praise for all the wondrous things that FEMA had done with mobilizing food into place, getting ice trucks into the right place.  I’m listening to this going: You do realize, sir, whoever you are that I heard on CNN the other day — no, he was on with Greta.  I was listening to Greta the other night on my way home.  I was listening to Greta on my way home after the Constitution Day extravaganza, which, if you missed, it’s on the website at MikeChurch.com.  He was overflowing with praise and happiness over what FEMA had done.  I’m listening to this saying to myself, maybe even screaming at the radio: Those are all things that you could have done.  In Colorado where you live, you don’t know where the freaking light bulbs are?  In Colorado where you live, you don’t know where the dump trucks are?  Are you serious?  In Colorado where you live, you don’t know where the food is?  You don’t know where the ice is?

I bring that up not to demonize or vilify the actual people in FEMA doing the work but just to point out, to fund FEMA, you have to have an act of Congress and you have to launder the money.  Even from a practical, common sense, dollars and cents point of view, it is a waste of money.  The State of Colorado could have spent less of its own money doing its own emergency relief rather than sending tax dollars and laundering it through Mordor on the Potomac River, having another bureaucracy oversee it that’s not in Colorado, and then having to marshal the forces and transport them to Colorado.  Shouldn’t Coloradans be dealing with this?  That’s my point.

Yes, I believe Americans of all stripes would respond to the call, just like many Americans came to my home town in New Orleans after Katrina.  I met people from Nebraska.  I met people from Vermont.  Shortly after Katrina, our friends Stewart and his wife traveled all the way from Vermont in their retirement to come down and do a mission and help people out in one of the areas afflicted by tornadoes in Alabama.  While they were there, they came down and paid the due to visit and we had lunch.

My point is, the American public responded.  They responded to the emergency.  After Katrina, after New Jersey, after the Oklahoma tornadoes, in every instance the American public, without their government, has responded.  American electric companies have responded.  They’ve sent trucks, wires, whatever needs to be done.  This is not a federal power to exercise.  Just leave that aside.  Look at the practical aspect of it.  The State of Colorado, State of Oklahoma, State of Alabama, State of Louisiana are perfectly capable of dealing with these things without having to have the Feds launder the money, have another bureaucracy and get involved in it.  That’s my point.

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AG:  This was the exact argument that Rick Perry was making on Crossfire yesterday regarding healthcare.  I actually have a clip of that.  He was on with Martin O’Malley, my Maryland governor.  He made the point: Why can’t Marylanders decide for Maryland what is best in their healthcare system?  Why does it have to be one size fits all federally?  Here’s the clip:

[start audio file]

Governor Rick Perry:  we know that it’s a broken system.  Even the expansion of Medicaid was one of those things that we said we’re not going to participate in.  The reason in, even the president himself in 2009 said Medicaid is a broken system.  I agree with him, Medicaid is a broken system.  Why would we want to put tens of thousands of people on a system that was broken?  It would be tantamount to putting another thousand people on the Titanic knowing how that’s going to turn out.

Stephanie Cutter:  If you did, you’d cut your uninsured rate in half, including hundreds of thousands of veterans in your state.

Perry:  If we were to put $18 billion over the next ten years, what it’s going to cost the State of Texas — $100 billion in total cost is what Medicaid would cost the State of Texas in the next ten years — we would only see three percent drop in the uninsured rate in the State of Texas.

[end audio file]

Mike:  What Perry is saying is that Texans can better care for Texans with their medical services.  We don’t need you, Stephanie Cutter.  I think the reason why people like Cutter say things like [mocking] “You’d have all these veterans and this and that and the other.”  Cutter, if your president hadn’t sent those veterans and the preceding president had not sent them into wars we don’t belong in, they wouldn’t have gotten injured.  There’s a very good chance, I can’t say for sure, but there’s a good chance they wouldn’t be injured and need the care.  People in the states can have their own form of FEMA.  That does not preclude people from other states assisting.  You’re voluntarily assisting.  You’re assisting because it is the right moral thing to do.  You are being your brother’s keeper in that instance.  FEMA cannot replace your brother’s keeper and we shouldn’t want it to is my point on that.

I have this book coming out and you’ll be able to find it at the Founders Tradin’ Post at MikeChurch.com under the Books section, autographed by author.  It is Patrick Henry American Statesman.  This book is another one of those great treasures from the literary work of the 19^th century that no one ever bothered to modernize, digitize, and then update so that it reads and looks like a modern book, including being able to read it on your Kindle, being able to read it as an ePub.  Patrick Henry American Statesman, as I say on the back of the book, is not a history book.  It is an exhilarating and thrilling American story of one of the founding fathers and how they went through their entire life.  Get it today in hardback copy.  You can reserve your copy, signed, numbered, limited edition, with a clothbound cover and a dust jacket.  There are only 40 or so remaining because there are only 100.  Call 866-483-3833 to reserve that copy.  The hardback copy, the pedestrian copy, is also on sale now.  You can find that in the Founders Tradin’ Post.  Go to MikeChurch.com, click the Shop Mike’s Store link at the top of any page.  Then click Books, Autographed by Author, and there you will find the Patrick Henry American Statesman book.  Don’t forget all the Constitution Week specials we have under the Specials tab, my movie Spirit of ’76, my movie Road to Independence and all the other great American history docudramas and docudramedies on the site at MikeChurch.com.

Ted in Colorado, you’re next.  How you doing?

Caller Ted:  Hey, Mike.  First of all, it’s an honor to speak to you.  I’m a longtime listener, first-time caller.

Mike:  Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

Caller Ted:  You just mentioned FEMA and Colorado.  I had to call in and laugh.  I work at the Boulder airport, not for the airport but for a company based out of it.  The National Guard is sitting there for a week and a half.  Everyone else has been there, fire and rescue and all that.  FEMA just showed up Monday, a day late and a couple dollars short.

Mike:  Oh, really?

Caller Ted:  It’s been a mess trying to get into the airport to get to work.  They showed up and just made it even worse.  Everybody packed up and left yesterday.  Everything is done and over with and the cleanup is over with.  FEMA is standing around with their hands in their pockets: What do we do now?

Mike:  What’s the water like right now?  Has it receded finally?

Caller Ted:  I haven’t been up to Longmont lately.  We tried to go up to Longmont, like you said be your brother’s keeper, help put with our pickup trucks and everything.  We were turned away.  We were told that civilians weren’t allowed in the area to help and to go home and do our thing and they’d let the National Guard and apparently FEMA, a week late, take care of it.  I believe the water is receding and everybody is okay.  They got most of the people out.  We had a few people lost, which is always horrible, but these things happen.  We live in an area where the 100-year flood is going to happen sooner or later.

Mike:  Those 100-year floods are B-itches, aren’t they?  They seem to keep happening with regular occurrence, another one of those subtle indications that there may be a transcendent God in charge of all this.

Caller Ted:  Exactly.

Mike:  And through all of our human activities and our belief that we can control these events, we actually can’t.  You can build the greatest house and the greatest dam and the greatest human structure to try to prevent a flood or whatever else it is you’re trying to prevent.  Mother Nature can just squash it like a bug.

Caller Ted:  If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.

Mike:  yeah, well, we’re Americans.  We’re not supposed to suffer any of these things.

Caller Ted:  Of course not.

Mike:  What’s supposed to happen is the flood is supposed to go: Wait a minute, that’s an American village.  I’m not flooding that joker.  They’re exceptional.  Let’s go find someplace over there in Taiwan.  Hey, let’s go to Indonesia and start a tsunami.  Yeah, that’ll be fun.

Caller Ted:  It happens here and everybody opens their eyes and says: Whoa, wait a minute.  What just happened?  It was just interesting that FEMA showed up.  A buddy of mine had a conspiracy theory that Governor Hickenlooper over here asked for their help for the federal aid and money and water and food, or FEMA showed up anyway of their own accord just so they could say they made a presence and showed up.  Look, we showed up in Colorado.  We didn’t do what we were supposed to do but we showed up in Colorado a day late and a few dollars short.

Mike:  Like I said, they had a great propagandist on with Greta the other night.  That guy made me think FEMA had been there.  When the first trickle of water crossed the road, FEMA was there handing out MREs and ice and marshaling forces and putting bulldozers in places and temporary bridges and airlifting people out.  Man, you name it, they were doing it.

Caller Ted:  I’m sure there were a few other staging points, but the Boulder airport is the staging point for most of the state’s emergencies.  Obama has been here a few times and they’ve shut us completely down.  They didn’t show up until Monday.  Like I said, by then everything had already been done, and we were turned away when we tried to go help.

Mike:  I appreciate the call, Ted.

End Mike Church Show Transcript

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