Sandy, complexity, competence
IMAGE: NYS
It may well be that next Tuesday, Republicans will take control of the entire Federal government, winning the White House and the US Senate.
This is a political party that has moved into full and direct opposition to many (if not most) of the services that Americans take for granted that government will provide, from the social safety net to the kind of emergency FEMA response that we saw during tropical storm Irene and Hurricane Sandy.
The one exception to the GOP’s ideological distaste for government is the US military.
Where most other aspects of the Federal government’s role enter into the debate, the party’s distaste — though sometimes veiled or muddled — shines through. Government is a force that shackles creativity, limits freedom, and stifles entrepreneurship.
North Country congressional candidate Matt Doheny — though supportive of some government infrastructure projects — regularly describes Federal social welfare programs as “a hammock,” the implication being that services of this kind create a disincentive to hard work and independence.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave full-throated endorsement during the GOP primary to eliminating FEMA, dispersing emergency response functions to the states, or even to private companies.
“Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction,” Romney said, in answer to a question about natural disasters and FEMA funding. “And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.”
The problem with this approach is that Republicans still haven’t explained how this new system — which, remember, involves life and death matters — is supposed to work.
If we downsize the social safety net, how do we as a moral people prevent more poor and vulnerable Americans from dying for lack of food, medicine, and safe housing?
What do we do when an entire region of the US is crippled by a storm, or an earthquake or a series of tornadoes?
In the past, Republicans have offered answers to these questions that sound wholesome and satisfying, arguing that 19th century values like generosity, independence, faith and community spirit can fill the gap.
But as we’ve seen this week in New York City and New Jersey, America doesn’t look or work like that anymore. Lower Manhattan isn’t a village where the local deacon and the mayor can help out those people who are struggling with a potluck dinner and a barn-raising.
This is a massively complex social structure involving more than ten million people, all of them bound together by incredibly intricate layers of infrastructure and technology. Just the mechanisms for delivering safe food and water — let alone electricity — to that region beggars the imagination of the layman.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, himself a former Republican and now an independent, spoke to this ideological question after the storm this week.
“New York City taxes itself and spends the money to protect us and to have the services that will keep us going,” he argued. “Which always annoys me when they say ‘You’re a high taxed place.’ Yeah, and we get something for it.”
Indeed, we saw this week what happens when competent, well-funded government works well. Government forecasters warned us of the storm. Government first-responders led by elected officials prepared and offered support and guidance to civilians.
In the end, roughly 75 people died in the US because of this disaster. Without the intervention and courage of taxpayer funded government workers, institutions and programs, that number would certainly have been much, much higher.
If Republicans do take control in January, they owe it to their constituents to study the response to Hurricane Sandy, by Bloomberg, by New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, Republican Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey and Democratic President Barack Obama.
The storm is a metaphor for much larger questions about the role of government and governmental agencies when Americans are vulnerable.
It’s one thing to argue that the Federal government should play a limited (or no) role in saving big companies or industries, or to argue that bureaucrats shouldn’t pick “winners and losers” in the private sector economy, or to debate the need for stimulus spending during a recession.
Those are important economic matters, and they’re fair game for dispute, because they are not literally life and death. But there are also moments when people’s safety and welfare hangs in the balance.
Consider this: 74 people died, so far, from Sandy.
But independent studies from groups like Harvard Medical School, the Cambridge Health Alliance, Families USA and the Institute of Medicine have found that between 18,000 and 50,000 Americans die every year because they lack health insurance and access to basic medical care.
That’s an invisible hurricane of much greater magnitude. Buried in those statistics are shockingly high rates of death from preventable and curable disease, and a dismal record of infant mortality.
So it’s time for the modern conservative movement to fill in some blanks.
Out on the campaign trail, it may suffice to say that “government is the problem” and that the private sector will answer all our needs with the lowest cost and the greatest efficiency. It’s enough to say we’ll overturn Obamacare without explaining what new reforms to the healthcare system will replace it.
But as Sandy has shown, sometimes problems arrive on our doorstep uninvited. Sometimes it’s a storm hitting a vulnerable community. Sometimes it’s cancer or heart disease hitting a poor person who lacks insurance.
When challenges are that big and lethal, I have no doubt but that Americans will continue to look to Washington for a competent, compassionate response. If Republicans are in power, they should be ready.
Personally, I think Brian M. should just give up and start name-calling. But that’s me.
You know I think that is a sign of a good leader, check the facts and be willing to change your mind.
Also, a smart leader. Whatever the reality, the impression that having all those human and material resources being used to support the marathon instead of those poor, suffering people would have been like Bush flying over the Superdome after Katrina to X 10. He wouldn’t have dared leave Manhattan for the rest of his term.
It seems like there have been some misconceptions about the role of the federal government in disaster relief. It is primarily a support role with the prime responsibility remaining with the state and local authorities. FEMA and the federal government have an important role to play when disasters such as Sandy involve more than one state.
I agree dbw.
I think people start believing their own talking points about the massive federal government sitting down the street. The US federal government is not that big of a deal, little agencies like FEMA play supporting roles and basically write checks to help get things moving. The largest part of our federal government as far as physical assets on the ground to be able to do something would be the military. Outside of that there is not much too it. Probably the Post office is the most visible physical federal government presence in most communities.
We can wait on FEMA all we want, there is no big agency with tons of relief supplies sitting at “FEMA”, it is a coordinating agency and can disburse funds and help somewhat to those who are actually in place to help.
The Red Cross and other NFP do the immediate humanitarian relief services, the companies that handle our infrastructure are tasked with taking care of restoring power, local governments handle the water and so forth.
There is no mischaracterization hermit which is a nice way of saying I’m a liar B Manns anecdotal evidence carries no more weight than Larrys. B Mann used these words- But that anecdotal experience is, bluntly and factually, false. So he can call a guy sitting int he middle of the disaster zone a liar, but if he makes claims based on what he sees then its gospel? I dont think so. The apology is due from Mann to Larry.
And whoever is was that posted those graphs about employment- look at food stamp and unemployment graphs from the same period- they rise. You people need to face the fact that Obamas plans aren’t helping, they are hurting.
I realize it would not fit into your thesis that there are no other answers out there than the expanded social safety net and the explosive governmental expansion we have seen over the past four years. In addition, it would require some reading with an open mind. If you can find the time, the Wall Street Journal has an article today that provides a conservative/contrasting viewpoint to yours. I direct you to: “Michael Tanner: In Disaster Relief, Bigger Government Isn’t Always Better”. Believe it or not, there are some other ideas out there if you open your eyes and mind and search for them.
If we were to look at the situation with an open mind we might find that the size and scope of government expanded drastically under the previous administration that shall never be named on this blog, and that a large part of the difficulty in getting the current economy moving is the drastic cut in public sector employment.
It’s good to have these supports; the bottom line is we all should look at being able to survive on our own for some period of time. Disasters shatter the comforting illusion that there is a massive system out there, that is in charge, regardless if you are conservative or liberal I think people have this illusion of the power of the ‘system’ some massive Government that is worried about us either in a malevolent way or a benevolent way, neither is true.
OK, George, I read the piece by Tanner, but I can’t say that I found any new ideas in it. And there are some seriously foolish bits, too:
Even if that was all there is to FEMA, it would still make sense to have federal disaster aid available: what if Louisiana doesn’t happen to have any emergency funds available when disaster strikes? But the idea that these payments represent transfers that all even out in the end is blatantly false. Some states (mostly those shaded blue on maps this time of year) give far more to the federal government than the other states, which routinely receive more from the government than they pay in. Louisiana happens to be a great example. God knows what would have happened if they’d been on their own dealing with Katrina.
And he makes a big deal out of the waste, fraud and abuse, that occurs after disasters. Now Romney has said that he wants to turn disaster relief over to private entities. Hello! When there is waste, fraud and abuse, who do you think perpetrates it? Remember the waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq under He Who Shall Not Be Named? Let’s see… Halliburton, Blackwater… were those government agencies?
“were those government agencies?” for all practical purposes yes. Our tax dollars hard at work. You bring a good point. From my limited perspective of someone who does work in the NFP world, privatizing government contracts to for profit entities such as Blackwater or Halliburton increases fraud and abuse not reduces it. Why? Well because a for profit entity has one goal to maximize profits, you maximize profits by increasing revenue and reducing expenses. So when it comes to the government contract you try to get as much as you can, needed or not, that may include bloating up the stated need, and then you reduce the expenses by offering lower services or no services would be the optimal thing to do.
Their mission the reason they exist is to maximize profit, and that is OK that is what they are supposed to do and it works when you are selling shoes to individuals who can decide if they want to buy your shoe or not at the price you offer. It does not work when you have a government contract with no consumer choice, the incentives in that case are all backward and create the worst of all worlds.
@Brian Mann
A thought provoking article. One hopes that it was not to espouse more government than we already have. I was struck by your reference to Americans as a moral people. We are indeed.
The founding fathers of our country were all moral people in the sense you describe — they fashioned a government for like minded folks — not big enough to give people everything they want, for such a government can also take away everything. Especially in the past 75 years or so, their work and effort has been compromised by those who consider their morality more important and worthy than say yours or mine.
The most effective response during Katrina / Rita, Irene / Lee, was, and now to Sandy is, by far and away being delivered by local government and private enterprise — the response by building contractor companies like The Home Depot, Lowes and Walmart to get things like lumber and generators into the hard hit areas that will be without grid power for days to come is but one example. Are federal government resources assisting — of course and they will be needed in future events like this. The military flying electrical repair equipment from the western states is but one example. Having ships offshore that generate clean drinking water by the millions of gallons daily, another welcome assist. Strong, able minded Governors are leading the way. There are valid reasons for Mayor Bloomberg to resist FEMA and other Fed agencies — when you accept their help and money you also automatically get to rebuild according to their dictates.
When the rebuild starts, it will be local folks helping each other. It will take time and there will be impatience and not everything will be perfect — few things in life are.
There is no panacea that can be delivered by national gov’t agencies that is better than that which local gov’ts are equally capable. NJ, NY, CT and for sure NYC are peopled by individuals just as capable of problem solving and raising the funds to recover — without the heavy hand of national dictates.
You live in the North Country — in every instance of weather or other type of disaster, the most immediate and useful assistance comes from your neighbor and his/her friends. Whatever comes later is icing on the cake.
There are some people hit by Sandy who forgot the lessons of 9/11 and the need to prepare to take care of yourself and those who depend on you — hopefully the lesson is learned this time.
Good points.
What George King said. The private sector and small government always work better. The counties never needed Cuomo’s help after Irene. That was all grandstanding by a liberal. Similarly, see how well big business in the form of the oil companies has responded to the fuel shortages. The market is working, libs. Deal with it, handout lovers!
Actually, the argument isn’t that the State level is the problem, but rather that an ever growing Federal gov’t is the problem. If you’d listened to some of the debates you’d have heard Romney point this out. Health insurance of the Obamacare style, for instance, is fine at the state level, it’s even legal! At the Federal level it’s a whole new ball game with Constitutional issues, despite Justice Roberts tag teaming to take the non-tax and make it a tax…except that it isn’t…or is, I forget. Same with so much else. No Child Left Behind is turning out to be a nightmare, thank you Mr Kennedy and Bush. The Federalization of the TSA did not do as promised and result in increasingly qualified personnel of higher caliber and fewer problems, in fact it’s been just the opposite. FEMA in theory, a system to coordinate emergency management in times of disaster, is a great idea. Instead FEMA becomes a police agency with it’s own SWAT teams and another self sustaining bureaucracy. If we could take FEMA, for example, and make it back into the liaison system it was intended to be, then it might be far more effective since it wouldn’t be engaging in “turf wars” with NY’s SEMO and various other agencies. Look at OSHA, a common sense idea. Worker safety is important. Look what it’s done- you can’t get people to volunteer to be firemen any more because OSHA and the fire safety people treat them like full time professionals, so now we have a real shortage of volunteer firemen.
Look folks, the Federal gov’t has it’s place, of that there is no doubt. But the states are more than capable of handling a great deal of what the Federal gov’t has grabbed on to. The states can also coordinate with each other without Federal assistance. The problem with much of this is money. The Feds have the ability to print all they want, the states don’t. That’s a double edged sword as our national debt and deficit show.
I’ve rambled enough. Suffice it to say that this in a great deal more complex than right vs left and liberal vs conservative.
Typical liberal pablum. Knee-jerk the “oh-look-how-good-liberal-big-government-took-care-of-us-after-a-disaster” headline so it immediately gets out on front of everyone in order to frame the debate. How well is big government’s response to this disaster really going right now?…..I guess it depends upon which news outlet you choose to feed your narrow, intellectually dishonest lemmings. Well, ‘debate’ may have been the wrong word, since libs never want to debate facts – let’s just cover everything in aspic and we’ll all feel so good.
And don’t forget to just ignore the bad and look at that photo-op – he cares so much! heavy, wonderful sigh……he really cares. Just don’t ask for a bottle of water.
Seriously! When the Republicans dragged Clinton kicking and screaming to reform welfare and put a time limit on welfare, no liberal could figure out why there weren’t tens of thousands of people starving to death in the streets. So it must mean tens of thousands of able body Americans finally got off there rears and got jobs that mysteriously weren’t there before welfare was reformed. You see , liberals, when you enable, you disable. If a person has to go out. And get 2 or 3 or even 4 part time jobs to support there family, oh well. It is there responsibility. And when is the past time you liberals reached into your own pockets and helped out your own family, no you would rather have someone else take care of your responsibility. Obama has family members living in dirt floor huts and won’t dip into his deep multi millionaire pockets to help them but will continue to try to make you sheep buy into his rhetoric. He is a hypocrite and you are his sheep.
An amazing line from Colbert that summarizes this silly argument in hilarious sarcasm!
“Who better to respond to what’s going on inside its own borders than the state whose infrastructure has just been swept out to sea?”
Rancid, I love you like a brother, but New York State is a big government, and has big-government problems, especially with its greedy pensioners, which are going to destroy local government this year. All government is the problem, and is for the leeches and suckers.
Is Bloomberg taking any heat for his flip flop on the marathon?
oa I have been in the background enough to know your style. Yes, NY is a big gov’t, but it’s our big gov’t. It doesn’t belong to the other 56 states, by Obamas count anyway, so it’s our ugly step sister to deal with. We stand a far better chance at controlling that monster than the giant sized monster in Washington DC.
BTW I’d be your sister not your brother. I may be getting on in years but I can still recall the difference.
Flip flop is the new term for critical thinking.