Trump Country should brace for less federal disaster aid [View all]

By Froma Harrop / Creators.com

The flooding in Texas is cataclysmic. It was a hellscape as more than 100 people, many of them girls from a summer camp, were swept to their deaths. Such tragedies spawn questions over whether the National Weather Service could have better warned the public. But this one is different in that the Trump administration is shrinking the weather service and vows to draw down the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Add to such losses the closing of rural hospitals due to Medicaid cuts and farmers suffering at the hands of Trump’s trade war. It’s a good guess that Trump doesn’t worry much about Trump Country. In any case, he’s not running again for president and so doesn’t need its voters. Now that his super rich supporters on Wall Street and in Palm Beach have their tax cuts, he may see the job as largely done.

One may have mixed feelings about some programs Trump wants to cut. I don’t discount the three ugly siblings of fraud, waste and abuse often found in them. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to cover rebuilding in flood zones.

I don’t live in hurricane alley, tornado alley or in flash flood alley. But FEMA should have a role in providing food, water, shelter or other emergency services at times of crisis.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/harrop-trump-country-should-brace-for-less-federal-disaster-aid/