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john in la

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What part of in La do you not understand
I ran for FEMA last week. Not for the money but so I could help those in need. Saw lots of devastation.
Got my pay check for the 7 days I was gone and it is 3 times its normal gross amount.
Can not even imagine how much my company is making as I only provided the labor; that company provided the truck; trailers; fuel; insurance and so on.
And to think this is only water vapor in the air compared to the ocean of bills we are racking up on FEMA's credit card.

We all here about the $600 toilet seat and think that must be a fluke. But from what I have seen from FEMA it is not a fluke.

A while back a area near Baton Rouge La flooded. FEMA was bringing in mobile homes night and day to provide housing for flood victims. The local news reported....

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is spending an estimated $129,200 for the purchase, transport and installation of each "manufactured housing unit" placed on the private property of a flood victim, according to a document provided to a Louisiana congressman. If the unit is placed in an already existing commercial park for mobile homes and travel trailers, then the cost increases to $149,000, because of the extra expense to lease the site pad. And if the mobile homes are placed in FEMA designated group sites, then the price can rise as high as $170,000.

A local place that sells mobile homes said he could sell and install this particular model home for $37,900 and still make a profit.

If you listen to the local talk radio when they are talking about floods several will call in and state... Why do we need flood insurance; we will just wait for the FEMA bailout.

And before you go ripping the gulf coast remember Sandy in the N.E. and the river over flowing and flooding Iowa and other parts of the mid west.

So my question is how big is our government credit card. How long can we go on subsidizing everything and bailing out those that get in trouble.
This is not limited to floods and hurricanes; it is just what I know best.
 
The only time I ever got in to a deal like that was back in the 70s. A fire retardant was mislabeled as Nutrimaster instead of Firemaster and was mixed with cattle feed. For a while,cattlemen in Michigan couldn't ship cattle unless a vet came and took a fat sample and tested it for the fire retardant. I had one tested and she died. She laid here for a few days before anybody came to pick her up. The state had to send somebody to get her and take her to a special burial site that had been prepared for cattle lost in that whole debacle. There was compensation,but the guy who came to get her had to measure her to figure an approximate weight. She was bloated real bad from laying there in the heat. When he measured her and came up with a weight,I said there was no way she weighed that much. He said "This agency is giving out money like water,you might as well get your share.".

As for what's happening now,there's no answer. No solution. I will guarantee you this though,if this was an election year and every politician in DC was running for the seat they hold now,and the media made this an issue,they'd all be pounding their fists and promising to do something about all this waste. OK,they're in office,how about doing something about it? Won't happen now,won't happen ever. But,people will keep voting for the lying slugs because they believe their lying rhetoric based on their political affiliation,no matter which party it might be.
 
Nobody in DC wants a repeat of "heckuva job, Brownie". They'll do everything possible to avoid it, even if it makes no sense.
 
It seems to depend on who's getting help and who's paying the bill: help for my county and my state - GOOD, help for anyone else - BAD.

Local politicians don't get rewarded for preparing for natural disasters, planning and enforcing unpopular zoning restrictions to minimize damage, etc, especially if it costs any taxpayer some money. There are rewarded for securing money for the cleanup and rebuilding after disasters happen.
 
The Fed just prints more money.There is no fiscal restraint,it would be too painful politically.Uncle Sam would have to renege on all the promises he made to everybody. So Congress just kicks the can and puts off the day of reckoning.
 
There is something like a 19 trillion U.S. national debt out there. This may become part of that debt, a number unlikely to go down.
 
I am not sure how home owners insurance works there but you would think people would have it and it would cover the loss of their home. Our home owners policy is for considerably more than the value of our home and contents. It is set up so if our home was a complete loss, including contents there would be enough money for a complete rebuild and to purchase everything that was lost at current prices. I had gotten a good policy. I do realize these people need a place to live, but your numbers seem pretty high for what they are getting. For that price around here you could buy a nice 3 bedroom house with garage on a decent size lot. Not a mobile unit. Heck I bought our place 7 years ago for under 100k. 4 bedroom house built in 1979 on 5 acres with a garage. Nice condition just needed a roof and siding. I guess there is no limit on gov. spending and it seems to never make sense. I do feel bad for these people who lost everything, but I hey do live in a bad weather area. To live there and not be prepared is just crazy. That would be like me saying I was totally taken off guard with the surprise lake effect snow during the winter here, or a blizzard. It happens and we prepare for it. It's not a "surprise". It just happens just like the storms you folks get down there.
 
The ones who get the FEMA contracts are the one's who make out, the workers only get the crumbs,,yes there should be an audit of what takes place,,FEMA is a Black hole for money waste,,but they get by with the "doing it for the kids and family" angle...
 
Catastrophic weather events and wildfires will continue until we realize that man does indeed have a hand in the climate changing.
 
When I say "we" I am referring to everyone in this country, but mainly the politicians who write air pollution laws. But your point is very well taken.... even if more stringent laws were written today, it would take decades to see any effects, especially since part of the problem is the natural climatic cycles that are also a causative effect.
 
Much of the problem regarding paying three prices for everything by government agencies can be traced back to the numerous policies in place regulating the bidding process and award of contracts. If those
processes were truly "fair", there would be much more competition resulting in cheaper prices for the taxpayer and better product for the end user. As far as government handouts and bailouts go, that relatively recent practice won't end until Congress is term limited and their motives for bribing every special interest group to buy their notes is taken away.
 
Steamboat I am not buying into our degradation of the earth as a major reason in climatic changes causing hurricanes, fires , and other natural occurring disasters. I do believe we have hurt many ecosystems, but these events have been happening as long as Earth was a planet. Problem now is people and more people noticing the changes. Our planet is alive with volcanoes, shifting techtonic plates ect. I agree many problems are cause by pollution, but they aren't what's going on. Aren't we still waiting for the earthquake that will drop half of California into the ocean? I hope not. I believe what's happening is mother nature's course, I think you may disagree and that's ok.
 
I agree with you 300jk,,this picture is bigger and beyond us...look at all the changes that Mother Earth has went through in the past few million years before there were people, gas/diesel engines and air conditioning refrigerant ..
 
It is arrogant of mankind to think that anything they do is affecting the climate and/or weather patterns. All the climage change rhetoric is really about scaring the uniformed masses into giving up their rights and freedoms, to the benefit of others. Mankind is a speck on the earth, it was here before us, and will be here after us. As long as the North Koreas of the world we are on the loose, we have much more to fear than the "climate change" bogeyman.
 
True enough that the earth has witnessed catastrophic changes over the many millions of years. But for how many of those was it possible for mankind to exist? A couple 100K? We are a far cry from the "garden of Eden"!!
A very wise professor said many years ago that "A thousand years from now when archeologists are digging up our bones, they will not be talking about the advancements we made in technology, medicine, energy, nor transportation, but rather the irreversible changes we made in our environment."
 
It looks like there are two different topics going on under here.

FEMA, is a wasteful organization, but most things that are done during an emergency are not thrifty.

Climate change is real, whether man made or nature, but we should ALWAYS improve the environment for future generations, something man has never done. The biggest change in the climate probably has been in Africa and it has been going on for a thousand years, this was due to a cyclical wobble in the Earths orbit. Africa was once a lush Savanah, now it is a desert. We have been on a warming trend for the last 10,000 years in the North, although it has seemed to accelerate recently.

As a country, we are making a huge mistake not taking the opportunity to be a leader in new technologies, even China is on the bandwagon now, our leader is clueless on this and taking us back to the 1800s technology.
 
That would greatly depend on the belief of the archeologists doing the digging...same thing as now,,different millennium ,,did the cave men eat all the dinosaurs?? there is way more to all this for sure..
 
Well you can ignore the subject while you work on your tractor, but your children and especially your grandchildren will not have that luxury. Sorta like the old farmer in Kansas in 1939 that said that what happened in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan was of no interest to him. He was sticking to farming, to heck with the rest of the world.

December 7, 1941...Pearl Harbor....changed the world for that poor isolated farmer...and especially for his children ...and many of the local boys.... who died in the war.
 
the governments credit card is unlimited--every single day they operate in a deficit---that's why every few years they raise the national debt so they can borrow more money
 
(quoted from post at 11:31:22 09/24/17) Catastrophic weather events and wildfires will continue until we realize that man does indeed have a hand in the climate changing.
Click to expand...

Yea right. I like climate change. Where I sit right now used to be under a couple of miles of ice during the Ice Age. Had the climate not changed that ice would still be here. Climate change is part of the NATURAL earth cycles.

Catastrophic storms have occurred sense the dawn of time. they didn't really start tracking hurricanes until sometime in the 60's. So they base the claim of storms prior to that on reported data based on damage cause not on wind speeds, storm surge and other data. Plus prior to the colonization of the Americas there is no real historical record. They do know because of geologist that some areas now dry land were once under the sea. Some deserts used to be jungles while some jungles were deserts.

As far as the wild fire? those too have occurred sense the dawn of time. Mother Nature cleaning up the forest. The problems we are having now with the are a direct result of tree huggers and home owners. The home owners who live in fire prone areas demand that these fire be put out. Meaning that the deadfalls and underbrush don't get cleaned out. Meanwhile the tree huggers have stopped many logging operations even those that only take the usable dead falls and still standing dead wood. That would be man cleaning out the forest instead of wildfire.

As far as the original topic? Companies have gouged the government sense the government first started buying things. The 417 dollar hammer being a good example of government stupidity. The contract for that had 28 pages of specification for a claw hammer. Each hammer was required to be inspected, weighed and tested several times in the manufacturing process. Those requirements didn't change for decades even though modern manufacturing eliminated the need to test each unit. When Harry Truman was still a senator he led the Truman commission charged with rooting out fraud and waste for the military prior to WWII. So this is not a new problem. FEMA is nothing more than one more government agency that really isn't concerned with getting the best bang for the buck. People would scream bloody murder if they wasted time trying to shop around for the best deal. They kinda operate with the "we need this, NOW, how much?" mentality. FEMA is kinda on the spot with this. They can't stockpile mobile homes or campers in case. The cost of maintain them for 5-6-7 or more years would be enormous. Plus if they did in fact stockpile them anytime new standards/codes came out they would have to upgrade or replace those homes.

Rick
 

Rick is spot on. Gov't never, ever, EVER does anything at lowest cost. Doesn't matter what it is, it's always way more expensive than having a private entity do it. And you can be sure there is someone, or several someones, somewhere getting their palms greased for every one of those over priced homes. Rooting out fraud and waste in gov't would be a full time job for anyone. Sad part is, no one cares.
 
(quoted from post at 18:21:12 09/24/17) There is something like a 19 trillion U.S. national debt out there. This may become part of that debt, a number unlikely to go down.
Click to expand...

I has gone over $20 trillion now.
 
(quoted from post at 19:31:22 09/24/17) Catastrophic weather events and wildfires will continue until we realize that man does indeed have a hand in the climate changing.
Click to expand...

THAT is so much baloney. Man's arrogance makes him think he is big enough to effect the climate of the earth.
 
I agree you can't ignore the man made global warming hoax. Those people are **** bent on destroying this country.
 
That expensive claw hammer you mentioned? The specifications are written by the lobbyist for the company that wants the bid. The specs will be one off from what the hardware catalog has. So the bid automatically goes to the Company that has those specs in their system. Another company can't afford to redesign their production process to make 50 or 100 hammers, and the lobbyist knows this. BT,DT
 
Climate change, and FEMA, what a combination.

The climate is changing, and I've seen it just in my 49 years on this ball of rock. I also believe humans have a small part in what's happening, even if we aren't actually the root cause. Regardless, there are things that we can do (solar energy, recycling, etc) that would help us out, as a civilization.

The problem with that happening, is the same problem FEMA has. The second the government gets involved in the issue, the costs go through the roof. Why, I don't know, other than the additional crap added to everything. Funny thing. Often this crap is designed to insure the government doesn't get cheated and cost us additional money, but it usually has the opposite effect.

Case in point, a bridge redone near me some tears back. In this project the law stated that the design of a bridge being redone using federal funds couldn't be changed more than 10%. This was to keep a contractor from building a 'fancy' bridge to pad the costs, when a simple bridge was all that was required. In this case a bottom was filled to create a road bed, and a NICE, temporary bridge was built.

The temporary bridge actually straightened out a curve, making the whole thing much safer than the old one. The original bridge being unsafe for those that didn't know about the curve just as you came off the bridge, or the bridge that you didn't know about until rounding the curve. Either way, the original design caused many accidents.

BUT, they went right back in the same spot, and rebuilt the bridge, leaving the curve as it was. Granted the new bridge was built a bit heavier, and a bit wider, but the curve, and the danger presented by it, was still there.

Then, they demolished the brand new, temporary bridge, and gave away thousands of yards of fill, that was used to build the road bed.

Essentially the bridge was built twice, and the cost was twice as high as a result......because of regulations designed to prevent waste........

In the end, leave all of the research, marketing of, etc etc, etc, climate change accoutrements, like solar power, bio fuels, etc, alone, and in private hands. If a profit can be made on any of them, someone will spend their own money in the quest for those profits. Any way it goes, we don't need the waste of taxpayer dollars to subsidize any of it.

The same should hold true for floods. Live in a flood plain, and don't have flood insurance, tough luck. Don't expect the rest of the country to bail you out for your own stupidity. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't have sympathy for these people, and when a catastrophe hits areas that have never been hit before, then by all means help them out. At the same time, when Joe and Betty Blow have been flooded out a dozen times, and haven't bothered to put their house on stilts, or done anything to limit the effects of a flood, for which they still refuse to buy insurance........it's on them, NOT on the rest of us....... In the end, it's about the one thing America has always been noted for, PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS.
 
Any large scale operation done in a remote location without working local services will be expensive. Look at what military operations cost per day. FEMA is still only a drop in the bucket compared to our military. FEMA help badly needed in parts of Texas, parts of Florida and now in all of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
 
(quoted from post at 06:06:25 09/25/17) That expensive claw hammer you mentioned? The specifications are written by the lobbyist for the company that wants the bid. The specs will be one off from what the hardware catalog has. So the bid automatically goes to the Company that has those specs in their system. Another company can't afford to redesign their production process to make 50 or 100 hammers, and the lobbyist knows this. BT,DT
Click to expand...

No actually the specs were written by an Army officer before WWII. Mass production at the time was such that variances in one to the next were common on something like a hammer. This guy wanted them all the same, weight, length ECT. 16 ounces you know, not 16.2, not 15.7......16 even! The senior brass signed off on those specs and the Army never went back and updated them.

Rick
 
(quoted from post at 09:14:11 09/24/17) I ran for FEMA last week. Not for the money but so I could help those in need. Saw lots of devastation.
Got my pay check for the 7 days I was gone and it is 3 times its normal gross amount.
Can not even imagine how much my company is making as I only provided the labor; that company provided the truck; trailers; fuel; insurance and so on.
And to think this is only water vapor in the air compared to the ocean of bills we are racking up on FEMA's credit card.

We all here about the $600 toilet seat and think that must be a fluke. But from what I have seen from FEMA it is not a fluke.

A while back a area near Baton Rouge La flooded. FEMA was bringing in mobile homes night and day to provide housing for flood victims. The local news reported....

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is spending an estimated $129,200 for the purchase, transport and installation of each "manufactured housing unit" placed on the private property of a flood victim, according to a document provided to a Louisiana congressman. If the unit is placed in an already existing commercial park for mobile homes and travel trailers, then the cost increases to $149,000, because of the extra expense to lease the site pad. And if the mobile homes are placed in FEMA designated group sites, then the price can rise as high as $170,000.

A local place that sells mobile homes said he could sell and install this particular model home for $37,900 and still make a profit.

If you listen to the local talk radio when they are talking about floods several will call in and state... Why do we need flood insurance; we will just wait for the FEMA bailout.

And before you go ripping the gulf coast remember Sandy in the N.E. and the river over flowing and flooding Iowa and other parts of the mid west.

So my question is how big is our government credit card. How long can we go on subsidizing everything and bailing out those that get in trouble.
This is not limited to floods and hurricanes; it is just what I know best.
Click to expand...


Another thing everyone myself included has passed over and most likely explains the paycheck.

All government contractors have to, for the duration of the contract, pay union scale to all workers involved in fulfilling said contract. So it's most likely that. Most drivers get paid per mile or per loaded mile. 50 plus hours a week is normal, no overtime pay as such. Now under union pay Jon got union scale which is per hour with overtime pay.

Would be the same with the folks hauling in and setting up mobile homes and campers. All on union scale. And the unions watch like a hawk to try to make sure none of the companies cheat. They want guys like Jon to get those checks and then to try to get their coworkers to demand a union.

Rick
 
How about the blasphemy of actually making the claim that the earth orbits the sun? We all know that the earth is flat and the sun orbits the earth! How stupid can people be?????

History..look it up.
 
How big is the federal government's credit card? Well, the credit limit is around $20 trillion and the holder of that card is looking for the next credit increase!
 
"ignore the subject line???"

I thought this was going to be about a big tractor purchase, not another political knock-down-drag-out.

So NO, you can't just ignore the subject line. If it had said "wasteful FEMA spending" which is descriptive of the original subject matter, I would have ignored it. Of course it had a misleading title, on purpose I suspect, to try and skirt under the radar of management.
 
(quoted from post at 04:36:31 09/26/17) "ignore the subject line???"

I thought this was going to be about a big tractor purchase, not another political knock-down-drag-out.

So NO, you can't just ignore the subject line. If it had said "wasteful FEMA spending" which is descriptive of the original subject matter, I would have ignored it. Of course it had a misleading title, on purpose I suspect, to try and skirt under the radar of management.
Click to expand...

Not quite, it was asking about how much money is being spent by FEMA wastefully. This problem has existed for decades under both major parties being in power. The problem would still be here if independents or socialist were elected. So it's not really a political nor with the exception of the global warming is a fault person no one until now, you have tried to make this political. The deficit of the US in a non political topic when kept in the realm about wasteful spending and is important to all of us who pay taxes.

So just to keep you happy, the government buys tractors with tax dollars too. There you go, now it's tractor related.

Rick
 
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