ASHEVILLE, North Carolina, Jan 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he would sign an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally overhauling or eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “FEMA has turned out to be a disaster … I think we recommend that FEMA go away,” he said during a tour of North Carolina to see damage done by Hurricane Helene last year.

54 points

All those hurricane victims that complained about “illegals” getting some FEMA (but it wasn’t FEMA money, not that they cared) money got their wish. They won’t get any more FEMA money. Maybe nobody else will, either.

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22 points

Florida’s about to be unaffordable for millions of Americans. FEMA’s NFIP program had been disproportionately keeping cost of flood insurance low for millions of people in hurricane/flood regions along the Gulf coast, but now the market alone will dictate rates if FEMA is taken out of the picture.

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11 points

now the market alone will dictate rates if FEMA is taken out of the picture

Nah, Florida will just pass a law making it illegal for insurers to leave the state. Surely that will work!

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1 point

Didn’t they actually pass something near to that already?

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5 points
*

They’d save more effort by making it illegal for hurricanes to hit Florida. Borrow Trump’s marker and make them hit Alabama instead.

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2 points

Don’t worry. They’ll make sure handouts to red states won’t stop. It’s only blue states that’ll get fucked.

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30 points

These budget cuts are getting weird.

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37 points

Yeah, they’re not cutting subsidies to businesses, rolling back tax breaks, or anything that affects the deep pockets. Nope. They’re cutting stuff that helps people at home and abroad. Cut FEMA here, cut foreign aid. Eliminating housing and food help.

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23 points

I mean, they kind of said they were going to take this tack pretty clearly

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19 points

Sure. But the people that needed to understand that weren’t listening.

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8 points

This is money that will just stay with the states. For the best for places like California and Washington. For the worst for places like Florida.

Which is to say that this is terrible, but if states aren’t giving money to FEMA, the money will stay there.

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12 points
*

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t FEMA funded out of the Federal budget? Meaning if they cut FEMA, that money will just go elsewhere, not “just stay with the states”.

EDIT added clarification.

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10 points

‘elsewhere’ as in tax breaks for the wealthy and funneled to lord diaper’s designated recipients.

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10 points

Yes, but it’s blue states that contribute the most and red states that take the most. Without the federal government distributing these tax dollars, red states won’t be able to afford disaster recovery.

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1 point

Hmm, I’ll have to look into it. Not sure.

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16 points

florida, louisana, and texas. far and away the largest recipients of fema dollars over the last decade.

https://www.axios.com/2024/10/08/fema-direct-payments-state-recipients

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7 points

If you plan to drill baby, drill, natural disasters are only going to get worse, so they are mitigating against future emergency budgets they don’t want to pay by scrapping FEMA—leaving them free to destroy the environment and cut taxes with no future blowback, because states’ rights or some shit.

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15 points

It’s almost like we are losing the cold war in real time.

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7 points

As has been Russia’s playbook since at least the late 90’s. It’s just now all coming to head

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

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131 points

I’m willing to bet that the “problem” with FEMA is that, due to its vital role in dealing with emergencies, it has particularly stringent safeguards in place to prevent it becoming a partisan tool. And since Trump’s stated goal is to turn the entirety of the federal government into a partisan tool, it has to go.

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47 points

Maybe there are some buddies of the trump crime family that would be happy to privatize aid to disaster victims for a nice fee, and trump would like to withhold or bestow aid on States and individual officials that kiss his ass. So you bet the Left Coast won’t be getting any, but Mar a Lago will get a new roof every year.

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22 points

Nah, it’s just really hard to steal from it without people noticing.

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6 points

How hard can it be? They have to buy supplies and resources somewhere. And in an emergency no one is looking where you get stuff, from who, or how much. I’m surprised it isn’t ripe for abuse…

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6 points

Used to be that easy. Then Bush 2 and his fleet of RVs happened.

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2 points

Ironically, the Republicans installed a lot of oversight against single source contracting. You can do it but it’s very obvious. So privatizing the entire thing makes it easier to grift.

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11 points

I would bet it was as stupid as someone (or even naturally by group via social media) inventing a narrative during the Biden administration because everything he does is evil. Then the destruction of the agency being the natural conclusion of said narrative. It wins points for Trump since people living in that reality see this as a win over evil.

Then later, when it all blows up, likely during the next hurricane, they can just figure someone else to blame. Everything is probably purely off the cuff.

It’s what con men do. Just roll with everything and keep it up for as long as they can. It’s worked for Trump his entire life.

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191 points
*

“But my egg prices” - morons about to have a very bad 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.

We all warned you this would happen. This move was plainly outlined in Project 2025. Nobody tricked you, you’re just fucking morons.

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64 points

B b but Trump claimed he never heard of project 2025. He wouldn’t just lie to the American people right?

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Accusing gentle Mr. Trump of a misdeed?

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8 points

Absolutely not, I love Trump mister TSS officer

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7 points

I’m sorry but it’s either just Trump or Mrs. Trump now. Respect the law.

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12 points

He’s going to form the department of paper towel throwing

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