« A Word of Encouragement for Hanoi John | Main | Food Fascists Sue Colonel Sanders »
June 14, 2006
A Peek Into the Katrina Trough
For days before Katrina, some chose to ignore ample warnings that they might end up underwater. Consequently they found themselves caught in a flooded New Orleans. The absence of competent local government left them to sit with their mouths stretched open like baby birds waiting for Mama Washington to drop predigested food inside.
Federal bureaucrats did not let them down. Failing to realize that nothing would prevent the media from accusing it of not doing enough, Washington attempted to wash away the flood in a counterflood of taxpayers' money. Now we're starting to learn just where some of that money went.
An audit by the Government Accountability Office found that as much as $1.4 billion of Katrina and Rita expenditures was spent bogusly. That's billion, not million.
Emergency aid was spent on such things as:
- A sex-change operation
- A divorce lawyer
- New Orleans Saints season tickets
Money was spread far and wide, going to pay for:
- A tropical vacation at the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic
- Sex toys in Houston
- "Girls Gone Wild" videos in pricey Santa Monica
- Dom Perignon champagne in San Antonio
FEMA bureaucrats apparently found they could meet spending targets faster by handing money both to hotels, and to the guests staying in them. For example, California hotels were paid $8,000 to house a person who also received multiple rental assistance payments. Another "victim" got $2,358 in rental assistance while FEMA paid $8,000 for the same individual to stay at a hotel in Hawaii.
Millions of dollars in expedited housing assistance went to registrants who used the names and Social Security numbers of prisoners incarcerated all over the South. About $5.3 million in payments went to registrants who had used P.O. boxes as their allegedly damaged residences. One rider on the Katrina gravy train used a New Orleans cemetery for a home address. Another brazenly used 13 different Social Security numbers to get $139,000 in payments, all sent to the same address.
It seems the only player who didn't get anything out of this lavish spending spree was the one writing the checks. Washington had hoped to purchase a little positive regard by showing how much it cared. But the public relations dished out by the media couldn't have been less flattering if Uncle Sam had refused to spend a dime. Apparently you don't always get what you pay for.
But then, the government doesn't actually pay for anything. We pay.
On a tip from the thoroughly deranged Right Reverend Rabbi Judah
Posted by Van Helsing at June 14, 2006 2:18 PM
Comments
Heckuva job, Brownie!
Posted by: Ronald Reagan at June 16, 2006 9:37 AM
