Katrina Waste

An article in the Sun-Times, from AP, states that over 1/3 of the emergency cash from the Feds went to folks who had already applied and received the aid in the first place. Click here for article. Up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who got emergency cash after Hurricane Katrina based their requests on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names. It's scary, the lack of oversite which would allow somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,800,000,000 (900,000 * $2,000) to just go out. It shows just how unprepared the government was and how it simply threw money at New Orleans to show how it was caring.

I'm not as concerned about the rest of the story which lampoons the way in which people spent the money. This includes tattoos, condoms, handguns, adult entertainment, gambling and a diamond ring. Hey, the government gave the money no strings attached. If people want to squander their relief, its their own problem. I'm even less concerned about the fact that some people have sold the MREs they received onE-bay. I would be greatly concerned if they optained them through fraud or hording in a way that would prevent others from getting the food. But if everyone got them, who cares what they did with them.

However, the most interesting is the timing of the article. This seems to be related to the house audit which pointed to failures of all levels of government for the poor response to Katrina. It's almost as if the full story is "Sure the government screwed up, but they're nothing but a bunch of welfare cheats who would have squandered the money anyway."