If Republican presidential nominee Gov. Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan have their way, there would be no federal agency to coordinate the response to natural disasters. Currently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is engaged in disaster preparedness and response efforts across several states, as Hurricane Sandy bears down on the U.S. East Coast.
Romney and Ryan have publicly demanded that the federal government only disburse disaster relief funding if Congress agreed to offsetting budget cuts elsewhere. So, states would be held hostage to the whims of Congress and only receive funding after budget cuts were agreed upon.
Romney has also suggested that FEMA be shutdown, leaving the responsibility for disaster relief to the private sector. According to him, it would be “immmoral” for the federal government to fund disaster relief efforts without cutting the budget elsewhere. “It makes no sense at all,” he says.
Romney is right to shutdown FEMA. As he said in the debate, balancing the budget is the first priority. Market forces will eventually force the 47 precenters to live in the low lying areas, and the Governor is not too concerned about the 47 percenters anyway.