Do you believe large, bureaucratic government agencies spend your hard-earned tax dollars wisely and efficiently? If you answered yes, click here. But if, as do most Americans, you believe the answer is a resounding no, then keep on reading.
“Since the storm, I haven’t had any energy or pep to go get a job, but when push comes to shove, I will.” So said one woman, displaced by Hurricane Katrina, who is living in a hotel, her room and board covered by FEMA. Another woman has finally begun searching for a job, after authorities found a meth lab in the same hotel in which she was staying, also courtesy of your tax dollars.
This is not the first time that meth and FEMA resources have been in the news together. All this brought to you courtesy of your federal government’s emergency response bureaucracy.
The situation is so bad that fraud charges count currently stands at over 275 people in Mississippi. Earlier this year, in the same city, a woman pled guilty to making 28 false claims for government assistance. She now must return over $267,000 to the government.
Believe it or not, it gets worse. In a GAO investigation, an undercover agent was able to get over $2000 from FEMA by providing a false address—even after FEMA discovered he did not live there. The government watchdog group estimated that as much as $1.4 billion could have been wasted in the attempted Katrina recovery effort.
This is not the first time FEMA has wasted taxpayer funds. Shortly after Katrina, FEMA spent nearly $900 million on mobile houses which their own policy stated could not be used in flood regions. In classic bureaucratic style, FEMA then hired sales personnel to attempt to sell the houses.
But, if after reading this, you still believe that Big Government can be wise and efficient stewards of your tax dollars, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn ALG News would like to sell you.
ALG Perspective: Clearly, government bureaucracy is in a pretty pathetic state. Resources have been mismanaged at all levels of government, and crooks have been able to swindle the taxpayer of hundreds of millions—perhaps even billions—of dollars.
The fundamental solution comes down to personal responsibility. As stated by the Hoover Institution’s post-Katrina report on FEMA:
“People had not always looked to the federal government for help during disasters, but during the twentieth century the level of assistance expected from the federal government before and after a disaster ratcheted upwards.”
It is time for individuals to take more responsibility for their own actions and welfare, and to stop defrauding hard-working taxpayers by milking inefficient and bloated government bureaucracies.
