Tag Archives: disaster relief

This is what POTUSes do!

Joe Biden wasted no time doing what presidents of the United States are supposed to do when disaster strikes the nation.

He issued a disaster declaration for Mississippi, which has been ravaged by tornadoes that killed more than 20 residents in that state and in neighboring Alabama. The federal government now has been ordered to expedite federal assistance to those who have lost property and loved ones.

Why is this worth mentioning? Let’s see. His immediate predecessor apparently based his decisions on matters such as this on whether the affected stated cast most of their votes for him in the previous presidential election.

Do you recall how POTUS 45 scolded California for its “forest management practices” while hedging on whether to issue a disaster declaration in the wake of the fires that ravaged thousands of acres of timberland? I don’t even remember whether he issued that declaration, but the point is that he made a big deal out of an issue because California didn’t support him in his first bid for office in 2016.

President Biden is not going to play that stupid game. Mississippi didn’t vote for him, either, but he stepped up and did what presidents are supposed to do: help all Americans in need.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

FEMA shifts gears on West relief

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, once the bogeyman in Texas, has changed its mind and will expedite federal aid to help West, Texas rebuild after the devastating fertilizer plant explosion this past fall.

It interests me that Gov. Rick Perry, who tore FEMA a new one when it first denied the federal disaster declaration, hasn’t yet actually thanked the feds publicly for it.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/02/us/texas-fema-plant-blast/index.html

Perry instead praised the state effort in appealing that decision, as reported by CNN. I get that the governor is proud of the state’s effort to persuade the feds to change their mind. It is to the state’s credit that it was able to move the federal bureaucracy.

How much harm would it do, though, for the Republican governor to say a good word about the Democratic administration that enabled FEMA to do the right thing?

I guess it would do a lot of harm, given that Perry well could be positioning himself for another run at the presidency. He can’t look too, um, friendly toward those dreaded Democrats.