I expect that by the time you read this, President Obama will have been
re-elected. Get ready for four more years of Big Bloated Government.
Hurricane Sandy didn't help.
The New York Times declared "a big storm requires big government," and my liberal neighbors agreed.
My science-challenged mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said the storm makes it imperative that America do something about climate change. He said this even though hurricanes have not increased and little evidence exists that man has much effect on climate. With Obama's re-election, we now will spend billions more on "green" strategies. But the Earth won't notice.
Other politicians say Sandy proves we need a powerful federal emergency management agency. So I invited the man who should be president, Rep. Ron Paul, to come on my show to give a sensible perspective.
Paul said, "We handled floods and disasters for 204 years before we had FEMA, and states and volunteers and local communities did quite well."
Paul's congressional district is on the Gulf Coast, so he knows what he's talking about.
"What we should have is real insurance," he said.
Real insurance means private companies make bets about floods with their own money. But America has little of that.
I know this first-hand. I built a beach house because government encouraged me to take the risk. Private insurance companies wouldn't insure most of us who built on the edges of oceans, and those that did charged high prices. "Too high," said Congress, "so government must insure everyone!" They said they'd price it so taxpayers wouldn't lose -- but as usual, they were wrong. Even before Sandy, federal flood insurance was $18 billion in the red.
And worse, cheap insurance encouraged more people to build on the beach. This is an absurd subsidy that should immediately be abolished.
Read more: http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2012/11/07/more_government
Hurricane Sandy didn't help.
The New York Times declared "a big storm requires big government," and my liberal neighbors agreed.
My science-challenged mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said the storm makes it imperative that America do something about climate change. He said this even though hurricanes have not increased and little evidence exists that man has much effect on climate. With Obama's re-election, we now will spend billions more on "green" strategies. But the Earth won't notice.
Other politicians say Sandy proves we need a powerful federal emergency management agency. So I invited the man who should be president, Rep. Ron Paul, to come on my show to give a sensible perspective.
Paul said, "We handled floods and disasters for 204 years before we had FEMA, and states and volunteers and local communities did quite well."
Paul's congressional district is on the Gulf Coast, so he knows what he's talking about.
"What we should have is real insurance," he said.
Real insurance means private companies make bets about floods with their own money. But America has little of that.
I know this first-hand. I built a beach house because government encouraged me to take the risk. Private insurance companies wouldn't insure most of us who built on the edges of oceans, and those that did charged high prices. "Too high," said Congress, "so government must insure everyone!" They said they'd price it so taxpayers wouldn't lose -- but as usual, they were wrong. Even before Sandy, federal flood insurance was $18 billion in the red.
And worse, cheap insurance encouraged more people to build on the beach. This is an absurd subsidy that should immediately be abolished.
Read more: http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2012/11/07/more_government
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