I think the FEMA budget should be dramatically increased. And I say that as a conservative who's not reflexively for more government spending. The department has always tried to do homeland security on the cheap.
Madrid was a big wake-up call to us, yet we did relatively little. It really seems to me a matter of time before it happens in our country -- in part because it's so easy to do.
This is what the department was supposed to be all about. Instead, it obviously raises very serious, troubling questions about whether the government would be prepared if this were a terrorist attack. It's a devastating indictment of this department's performance four years after 9/11.
It does make sense to say that it's more likely, thank God, to have a natural disaster than a terrorist one.
There's understandable pressure to get money out quickly. But there inevitably will be waste and fraud.
You need both an exit feature as well as an entry feature. Unless you have both ends, the system still isn't operational.
This is a good news story. It's a very, very good first step.
It is entirely appropriate that the money go out just as quickly as possible to people whom we think need it, and to worthy contractors on a competitive basis. But in the rush to do it, there is real potential for waste and certainly for fraud as well.
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