The mainstream media was all-abuzz yesterday about the fraud and abuse in FEMA’s Katrina rescue efforts. Seems they found about a $billion in fraudulent use of FEMA debit cards and housing assistance. Outrageous expenditures like adult entertainment, a vacation in the Bahamas and even a sex change operation! Not only that but prison inmates applied for and got housing rent assistance! Horror upon horror!
Okay, take a deep breath and consider this. The first allocation of funds for relief in the Gulf Coast was $85 billion. One billion is about 1.17% and some of that will be recovered. Not so bad when you look at it that way. What would have been the cost of doing nothing?
How about this: there is $9 billion in cash unaccounted for in Iraqi rebuilding funds. I don't see a lot of rebuilding going on in Iraq. At least some of the Katrina evacuees had a roof to show for their debit cards and even the fraud left something to show (except maybe the sex change). Besides, the debit card expenditures can be traced. Large bricks of cash can't. Of course if you question anything about the “war on terra” you’re unpatriotic.
Put that $1 billion up against the 25% of the Pentagon’s $400 billion annual budget that they can't account for. 1.17% doesn't look so wild next to 25% does it? Total unaccounted for expenditures from the Pentagon amount to $2.3 trillion. Why isn't anybody excited about that? I guess it’s because if you admit concerns about the behavior of our beloved leader you hate America.
Anybody other than me see a pattern here? Like maybe the Bush bunch couldn't find their @$$ with both hands? That being accountable isn't one of their priorities?
One last question for your consideration: Were there any hurricanes in the 8 years that Clinton was in office and how did FEMA perform back then, before the Bush bunch improved it?
http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=5031085 Katrina fraud fact sheet
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml Pentagon loses $trillions
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/ $9 billion unaccounted for in Iraq.
* Clinis: noun, a contraction of Clinton and Peni$. The source of all things bad that happen under the Bush administration and a source of endless entertainment for the political far right. See also "Political P0rn0graphy"