New Posts
  • Hi there guest! Welcome to PoliticalJack.com. Register for free to join our community?

Wth?

Barbella

Senator
Last week, more than six years after Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency began mailing out notices to victims of the storm that ripped through the Gulf region. The message: Give us our money back.

FEMA is asking more than 83,000 recipients of aid to reimburse the government an average of $4,622 each, BlackAmericaWeb reports. The agency says that clerical or employee errors may have resulted in some victims receiving more compensation than what may now be allocated.

David Bellinger, a 63-year-old legally blind former New Orleans resident who moved to Atlanta after his home was leveled by the storm, said he "nearly had a stroke" when he received his $3,200 bill, with 30 days to pay. "I'm totally blind; I subsist entirely on a Social Security disability check. If I have to pay this money back, it would pretty much wipe out all the savings I have."

We're sure he's not the only one in that situation. At least one elected official agrees. "Disaster victims shouldn’t be punished because FEMA is dysfunctional," said Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, rejecting a claim made by the agency that it is required by law to recover all improper payments, even if the recipient was not at fault. "Most of these families facing recoupment are honest survivors facing incredible challenges who used the funds for legitimate and urgent disaster-related needs."

She has recently introduced and sponsored a bill since signed into law by President Obama that would allow FEMA to waive many of the debts now burdening the already afflicted. Hopefully it will do so.

Instead of chasing down money from people who had no role in whatever errors were made, and almost certainly aren't in a position to repay, FEMA would be much better off preparing to avoid repeating the errors it made in its response to Katrina.

Read more at BlackAmericaWeb.
 

Dawg

President
Supporting Member
barb.posted the same in my Obama Hates Black People.......

remember how libs sang that tune during Bush and Katrina, betcha they will not hummmm it now.......

more proof the government is a screwed duck.
 

jammer

Mayor
Last week, more than six years after Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency began mailing out notices to victims of the storm that ripped through the Gulf region. The message: Give us our money back.

FEMA is asking more than 83,000 recipients of aid to reimburse the government an average of $4,622 each, BlackAmericaWeb reports. The agency says that clerical or employee errors may have resulted in some victims receiving more compensation than what may now be allocated.

David Bellinger, a 63-year-old legally blind former New Orleans resident who moved to Atlanta after his home was leveled by the storm, said he "nearly had a stroke" when he received his $3,200 bill, with 30 days to pay. "I'm totally blind; I subsist entirely on a Social Security disability check. If I have to pay this money back, it would pretty much wipe out all the savings I have."

We're sure he's not the only one in that situation. At least one elected official agrees. "Disaster victims shouldn’t be punished because FEMA is dysfunctional," said Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, rejecting a claim made by the agency that it is required by law to recover all improper payments, even if the recipient was not at fault. "Most of these families facing recoupment are honest survivors facing incredible challenges who used the funds for legitimate and urgent disaster-related needs."

She has recently introduced and sponsored a bill since signed into law by President Obama that would allow FEMA to waive many of the debts now burdening the already afflicted. Hopefully it will do so.

Instead of chasing down money from people who had no role in whatever errors were made, and almost certainly aren't in a position to repay, FEMA would be much better off preparing to avoid repeating the errors it made in its response to Katrina.

Read more at BlackAmericaWeb.
Thanks for pointing out how the Bush adminstration screwed up the relief effort Babs. I am sure the Obama administartion will do the right thing and tell FEMA to back off. But tell me, where is your conservative rant about how government money is being wasted on these folks who should just go to a church for help and quit taking government handouts?
 

Lapcat

Governor
LOL! So they wait six years....until we're in an Obama depression...to demand the money back? I'd write back and tell them "The check is in the mail. Didn't get it? Blame the Post Office. Government "efficiency" is, after all, the problem".
 

Lapcat

Governor
Probably...in the same place where your leftist rant that the Obama administration's government shouldn't be demanding money from these po folk (mostly black, btw) after all these years....and in a depression-level "recession".

But tell me, where is your conservative rant about how government money is being wasted on these folks who should just go to a church for help and quit taking government handouts?
 
Top