Astounding
The combined intelligence of media and government is astounding
From the article:
Families displaced by Hurricane Katrina will receive debit cards good for $2,000 to spend on clothing and other immediate needs, the Bush administration said yesterday.
and then the kicker:
The administration estimated the cost of the program for 320,000 households at $640 million.
Holy crap! How did they come up with that number?
…
In other sad news (and also from the article):
President Bush sent to Congress a request for $51.8 billion in additional hurricane relief, raising Katrina’s cost to the federal government to $62.3 billion so far, a record for domestic disaster relief. Congress is likely to approve the White House request today.
White House budget director Joshua Bolten made it clear: “We will in fact need substantially more,” estimating the current sum would cover expenses for “a few weeks.”
Last week, FEMA was spending about $500 million a day, an unprecedented rate, House Appropriations Committee aides said. But over the weekend, Bolten said, that “burn rate” soared to more than $2 billion a day as FEMA began signing contracts for the construction of temporary housing.
$2 billion a day! Holieeee…
September 8th, 2005 at 12:09:50 pm
I think they multiplied 320,000 by 2,000. I find it encouraging that they can multiply large numbers, but I feel their cost model is a bit unrealistic. I listened to the mayor of Houston this morning and he seemed very well informed and actively using his initiative to help people, not really worrying about overstepping his bounds, but simply using his title wherever possible to do good. He said that while the Red Cross has begun handing out debit cards valued at between 500 and 1500 dollars, FEMA’s program is all talk, with no logistical provisioning to make it happen. He has been actively advising people to ignore press conferences as a source of information, as quite simply, a lot of what has been said has turned out to be utter fud. He was particularly angry, because the federal announcement that the cards would be handed out at the dome “shortly” lead to a large influx of refugees and a near riot.
September 9th, 2005 at 09:55:08 am
Of course the best solutions are going to come from individuals, and the small local groups. Because they see individuals instead of numbers. And that makes the biggest difference. I wish the Feds would just offer support as requested on the local level instead of “hey here’s 10 billion – you all good now?” approach. Less wasted money and more responsibility falling on the proper group/individual. The greater the money number the greater the misuse and corruption. I also think the funds should be issued as low-interest micro loans – emphasizing that the money, in the majority, is coming from other people and the debt should be repaid back to society. Something to prevent the abuse and to rekindle awareness that we are all in this together as a society, nation, and world.