The Money Pit

They just keep shoveling it in, and shoveling, and shoveling, and shoveling... and never look to see where it lands.

Audits Show Millions in Katrina Aid Wasted

WASHINGTON - In its rush to provide Katrina disaster aid, the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasted millions of dollars and overpaid for hotel rooms, including $438-a-day lodging in New York City, government investigators said Monday.

Two reports released by the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department's office of inspector general detail a series of accounting flaws, fraud or mismanagement in their initial review of how $85 billion in federal aid is being spent.

The two audits found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under FEMA's emergency cash assistance program — which included the $2,000 debit cards given to evacuees — were based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.

Separately, the Justice Department said Monday that federal prosecutors have filed fraud, theft and other charges against 212 people accused of scams related to Gulf Coast hurricanes. Forty people have pleaded guilty so far, the latest report by the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force said. Many defendants were accused of trying to obtain emergency aid, typically a $2,000 debit card, issued to hurricane victims by FEMA and the American Red Cross.

Thousands of additional dollars appear to have been squandered on hotel rooms for evacuees that were paid at retail rather than the contractor's lower estimated cost. They included $438 rooms in New York City and beachfront condominiums in Panama City, Fla., at $375 a night, according to the audits.

You know something? I don't want to hear one more goddamned thing about how every solution that Democrats or Liberals suggest is "just throwing money at the problem." Once again, we have a situation that requires government response, and the response is to simply dump truckloads of money over the entire thing, hoping it will solve the problem (and repair their tarnished image). Now, I will say that the people that capatalized on this disaster and scammed money out of the Katrina funds are scum, and deserve whatever punishment they receive. However, this is just another example of how sloppy money management is milking every American taxpayer dry, and keeping needed funds from those who desperately need them. Like the victims of Katrina that are getting the shaft yet again:

NEW ORLEANS - About 12,000 families made homeless by last year's hurricanes were hoping for a last-minute reprieve that would force the federal government to continue paying directly for their hotel rooms past Monday's deadline.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has promised the evacuees from hurricanes Katrina and Rita that they will still receive federal assistance that they can use toward hotel stays or fixing their ruined homes, although FEMA will no longer pay for the hotels directly.

But in a motion filed Sunday, lawyers for the evacuees say the money they'll get now won't be enough for reasonable living accomodations or for continued hotel stays.

As the fabricated war sucks up an obscene amount of money, we're still missing 9 Billion Dollars in Iraq funds that have just vanished into thin air.

Meanwhile, the tax cuts for the richest Americans stand rock solid and untouchable, while the defecit soars out of control, all cuts in spending are laughable and serve only to slap the poor, the elderly, and the most needy in the face.

And they just keep shoveling.

I guess that when you've never had to worry about money, you're blind to how important it is. After all, if there's an endless supply, why worry about how you're spending it? Besides, it's not like its their money. When the Bush "presidency" is finished, all of the orchestrators will have their nice mansions to return to, and big fat wallets.

The rest of us had better develop a taste for cake.

(The best cross-posts in life are free...)