FEMA Is Not A Synonym For Fraud

I purposely waited until I revealed my opinion, regarding FEMA's performance after hurricane Katrina. I wanted to give a fair and balanced report, of how I think they responded. Up until now, the coverage has been kind of one sided, don't you think? When you see people sitting on top of roofs, or crying in the streets. The first thing you think is, somebody isn't doing their job. If we all are honest with ourselves, we must admit. There is another side, that we're now hearing about. At least now it's in the news. I was already aware of this practice. Most of us know somebody that has gotten money from FEMA, that they weren't supposed to get. I just wasn't aware off the extent.

FEMA is seeking $4.7 million, in overpayment and fraudulent claims. Overpayments range from $2000 to $26,500. Out of 2.5 million claims, 900,000 were false. That's over 1/3 of those who filed. Using false or duplicate social security numbers. It's no doubt they knew, they were breaking the law. That's just on the Gulf Coast, the state of Mississippi. That could very well be the reason they aren't doing much complaining.They're to busy stealing themselves. They don't have numbers for the state of Louisiana yet. I would imagine they're at least as bad, or worse. That may sound like a drop in the bucket, considering we have a $3 trillion deficit. We've spent billions, of taxdollars on the war in Iraq. America is the richest country in the world. All of these things may be true. It still doesn't justify stealing. Which is what this amounts to being.

I'm not saying FEMA did an acceptable job. They dropped the ball, in several cases. In many instances they were used as a scapegoat. It was easy to blame your mistakes, of which there were many. On the one organization who was shouldering the lions share of the responsibility. In defense of FEMA, it was their first time dealing with a catastrophe of this magnitude. The likes of Katrina had never happened before, except for Andrew. As devastating as it was, even it was of a different design. Katrina required a blueprint of it's own. As for those who have to repay the money. I would bet it's not the first time they signed their name.Unless some of the social security numbers, belonged to little children. Which I bet many of them were. This is a popular tactic of people, with this way of thinking. This attitude of entitlement is killing our country. I would bet many of these people felt they deserved the money. I've often said before, "A major catastrophe, isn't a cash windfall. There are those always looking for a way to get over. Are we a country of people, that zoom in for the kill. At least a lot of us are. To many of us prescribe to the idea. Get what you can ,while the getting is good.