Why are we required to pay Federal taxes if we aren’t getting anything for it? well, aside from a ballroom, an arch, the conversion of the reflecting pool into a swamp, and bands of armed thugs roaming the streets kidnapping and killing people.
Lanie...that’s the question they’re betting nobody asks out loud!
The deal has always been: you pay IN...and when the water comes up, or the tornado hits, the COUNTRY shows up.
Tuesday...in Little Rock...they REWROTE the deal...and kept YOUR end of it. You STILL pay. They just decide...case...by...case...whether you get anything BACK.
You're correct about where the money is going. The ballroom and the arch...yeah...they're the tell. There’s ALWAYS money for monuments. There’s NEVER money for the PEOPLE... the monuments...are supposedly FOR.
Hang onto that anger. It's ENERGY. Focus it at your governor’s office tomorrow...and ask about the reserve fund. THAT...is where this fight actually lives.
I can tell you one price tag from Hurricane Harvey in Texas, 1.6 Billion dollars in Direct Housing Assistance. In addition to this were funds for Public Assistance and Hazard Mitigation efforts.
I know because I was there.
States are not capable to carry these burdens by themselves, it would tax residents into oblivion.
Yeah...nobody in Little Rock would say THAT number out loud. $1.6 BILLION in direct housing alone...BEFORE Public Assistance...BEFORE mitigation...for ONE storm...in ONE DAMN state.
Texas is a BIG...rich state. Now...picture MISSISSIPPI! Yeah.
That’s why “build your own reserves” is a bullshit slogan...and NOT a plan. No legislature is parking a Harvey in a savings account...on the CHANCE it’s needed....a DECADE from now.
Either the federal government SHOWS UP... or people don’t get rebuilt. It's really as simple as that.
These firsthand accounts like YOURS, William... are worth more than anything I can pull from a report. THANK YOU again.
I actually did hear this on Tuesday. I got an ISTA email offering 500 FEMA funds to replace personal or classroom items destroyed. Not much, but it's something. So what does Trump want to splatter gold on now?
That’s exactly the point. Five hundred dollars...to a teacher who lost a classroom is REAL money to that teacher. It’s a "rounding error" to Washington.
AND...it’s the kind of small, direct HELP... that GOES AWAY first...when the declarations STOP coming...because NOBODY in Little Rock was talking about how a state replaces THAT line.
Fewer declarations. Read that twice. A man stood in a Little Rock hotel and told 50 states the lifeboats are optional. And he waited until two weeks before an election to do it.
Here’s the angle I can’t shake: the letter you never got will come from your lender and your insurer. Bond buyers and underwriters price in the federal backstop. Pull it, and a county with a two-person emergency office starts looking like a bad credit risk. Borrowing costs climb for the bridge, the school, the water plant. Premiums spike. Coverage disappears wherever the river runs. Home values in disaster-prone towns sink, and the tax base that was supposed to fill Hamilton’s “reserves” shrinks right along with them.
Economists call that a doom loop. I call it a scam with a spreadsheet.
And look at the gall. These are the same people who lecture about moral hazard, then waive environmental reviews and tell you to rebuild right where the water took you. Nothing says personal responsibility like paying twice for the same flood.
Add the pen in one man’s hands and the design becomes clear. Governors who play ball get rescued; everyone else gets a speech.
This is another cog in the Project 2025 wheel. It points in the same direction as the blueprint’s push to shrink FEMA’s role and shift more disaster costs onto the states. Each piece installed quietly makes the next one easier—and the public is left holding the bill.
HK, I was also wondering about the insurance angle….. witness what has been happening in places like FL. Last I heard many of the companies were refusing to write policies there…. others were raising the premiums so high that they were unaffordable for the homeowner……..too much risk, not enough profit after all the recent disasters.
I guess the estimate for replacing the Press Room with an indoor swimming pool, along with building the ballroom, the golf course, the Triumphal Arch and repairing the Reflecting Pool has come in higher than he could’ve imagined, let alone all that gilding, with 24kt gold, of The Peoples House that he’s undertaken is going to cost more than he’d anticipated, so FCK us! Enough of this insane monster thinking he’s a king, that monies in this country belong to him to be spent however he pleases…NO MORE!
Every damn day it just gets worse, and the people of this country are the ones bearing the burden and feeling the pain of the incompetence of this nightmare!
Every night I hope and pray that this will end sooner, rather than later !
Obviously Trump is going to need so much money for the things that he wants to do and how convenient, Congress is unable to stop anything that he wants to do. Will someone please put us out of our misery and release the Epstein files?
Several others have mentioned this so my comment will be short…… just where TF is the money that used to be FEMA’s going now…?? And HKJane addressed the insurance angle.
JHFC…. what a cluster and FUBAR… words kinda fail me.
Thanks, Jack. #HoldingFast and wanting to kick some asses….
Why are we required to pay Federal taxes if we aren’t getting anything for it? well, aside from a ballroom, an arch, the conversion of the reflecting pool into a swamp, and bands of armed thugs roaming the streets kidnapping and killing people.
Lanie...that’s the question they’re betting nobody asks out loud!
The deal has always been: you pay IN...and when the water comes up, or the tornado hits, the COUNTRY shows up.
Tuesday...in Little Rock...they REWROTE the deal...and kept YOUR end of it. You STILL pay. They just decide...case...by...case...whether you get anything BACK.
You're correct about where the money is going. The ballroom and the arch...yeah...they're the tell. There’s ALWAYS money for monuments. There’s NEVER money for the PEOPLE... the monuments...are supposedly FOR.
Hang onto that anger. It's ENERGY. Focus it at your governor’s office tomorrow...and ask about the reserve fund. THAT...is where this fight actually lives.
#HoldFast
-Jack
I can tell you one price tag from Hurricane Harvey in Texas, 1.6 Billion dollars in Direct Housing Assistance. In addition to this were funds for Public Assistance and Hazard Mitigation efforts.
I know because I was there.
States are not capable to carry these burdens by themselves, it would tax residents into oblivion.
My two cents....
#HoldFast and #VoteBlue
William...thank you for this!
Yeah...nobody in Little Rock would say THAT number out loud. $1.6 BILLION in direct housing alone...BEFORE Public Assistance...BEFORE mitigation...for ONE storm...in ONE DAMN state.
Texas is a BIG...rich state. Now...picture MISSISSIPPI! Yeah.
That’s why “build your own reserves” is a bullshit slogan...and NOT a plan. No legislature is parking a Harvey in a savings account...on the CHANCE it’s needed....a DECADE from now.
Either the federal government SHOWS UP... or people don’t get rebuilt. It's really as simple as that.
These firsthand accounts like YOURS, William... are worth more than anything I can pull from a report. THANK YOU again.
#HoldFast AND #VoteBlue...YES.
-Jack
I actually did hear this on Tuesday. I got an ISTA email offering 500 FEMA funds to replace personal or classroom items destroyed. Not much, but it's something. So what does Trump want to splatter gold on now?
Good catch. Jo Burns!
That’s exactly the point. Five hundred dollars...to a teacher who lost a classroom is REAL money to that teacher. It’s a "rounding error" to Washington.
AND...it’s the kind of small, direct HELP... that GOES AWAY first...when the declarations STOP coming...because NOBODY in Little Rock was talking about how a state replaces THAT line.
-Jack
Jack,
Fewer declarations. Read that twice. A man stood in a Little Rock hotel and told 50 states the lifeboats are optional. And he waited until two weeks before an election to do it.
Here’s the angle I can’t shake: the letter you never got will come from your lender and your insurer. Bond buyers and underwriters price in the federal backstop. Pull it, and a county with a two-person emergency office starts looking like a bad credit risk. Borrowing costs climb for the bridge, the school, the water plant. Premiums spike. Coverage disappears wherever the river runs. Home values in disaster-prone towns sink, and the tax base that was supposed to fill Hamilton’s “reserves” shrinks right along with them.
Economists call that a doom loop. I call it a scam with a spreadsheet.
And look at the gall. These are the same people who lecture about moral hazard, then waive environmental reviews and tell you to rebuild right where the water took you. Nothing says personal responsibility like paying twice for the same flood.
Add the pen in one man’s hands and the design becomes clear. Governors who play ball get rescued; everyone else gets a speech.
This is another cog in the Project 2025 wheel. It points in the same direction as the blueprint’s push to shrink FEMA’s role and shift more disaster costs onto the states. Each piece installed quietly makes the next one easier—and the public is left holding the bill.
Keep digging, Jack. They’re counting on silence.
#HOLDFAST
You hit THAT nail on the head. And the river literally runs right by my house.
HK, I was also wondering about the insurance angle….. witness what has been happening in places like FL. Last I heard many of the companies were refusing to write policies there…. others were raising the premiums so high that they were unaffordable for the homeowner……..too much risk, not enough profit after all the recent disasters.
Jack,
I guess the estimate for replacing the Press Room with an indoor swimming pool, along with building the ballroom, the golf course, the Triumphal Arch and repairing the Reflecting Pool has come in higher than he could’ve imagined, let alone all that gilding, with 24kt gold, of The Peoples House that he’s undertaken is going to cost more than he’d anticipated, so FCK us! Enough of this insane monster thinking he’s a king, that monies in this country belong to him to be spent however he pleases…NO MORE!
Every damn day it just gets worse, and the people of this country are the ones bearing the burden and feeling the pain of the incompetence of this nightmare!
Every night I hope and pray that this will end sooner, rather than later !
Christie
Amen, girl!
Obviously Trump is going to need so much money for the things that he wants to do and how convenient, Congress is unable to stop anything that he wants to do. Will someone please put us out of our misery and release the Epstein files?
I have no adequate swear words for this.
Just more proof that Republicans CANNOT govern. They should not be in charge. At all. Ever.
Thank you Jack, here’s an article that should concern all Americans/Governors
US disaster survivors still await at least $10bn in federal aid: ‘It’s devastating’ by The Guardian
Excerpt
The last long-term federal recovery funds allocated for a major disaster were for Hurricane Milton, which hit in late 2024
https://apple.news/AK5jcIin5QBad65GDuTMP3Q
Several others have mentioned this so my comment will be short…… just where TF is the money that used to be FEMA’s going now…?? And HKJane addressed the insurance angle.
JHFC…. what a cluster and FUBAR… words kinda fail me.
Thanks, Jack. #HoldingFast and wanting to kick some asses….