[oh blanky]

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer
22 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - The federal government plans to begin doling out debit cards worth $2,000 each to adult victims of Hurricane Katrina, The Associated Press has learned.

Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff descibed the plan in a conference call with state officials Wednesday morning. The unprecedented cash card program initially will benefit stranded people who have been moved to major rescue centers such as the Houston Astrodome.

"They are going to start issuing debit cards, $2,000 per adult, today at the Astrodome," said Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

The cards could be used to buy food, transportation, gas and other essentials the displaced people need, according to a state official who was on the call and requested anonymity because the program has not been publicly announced.

___

Associated Press reporter Suzanne Gamboa contributed to this report.

It was not clear from the report when the first gold teefs, bling, and malt liquor kiosks would open outside the shelters.

[boofus]

Hell, I live not 20 miles from the Astrodome. Can I go get myself a new Glock,Sig,&Colt card? I was victimized by having to see all those people loot and set things on fire.

[Dave R]

Good point. Who defines who was victimized? What are the criteria?

Loss of house?

Loss of job?

Loss of $XXX in personal property?

If my cat drowned, but my 2nd floor apartment is OK, do I qualify?

[50 Freak]

I watched the flood in horror from my couch in California. Am I a victim????

Ohhh Boy!!!! another 50cal, here I come..... :D

[Dave R]

I just gotta go on record and say this sets a very, very bad (and expensive) precendent. What's next? Tornados? Blizzards? Thunderstorms? Rush hour?

Besides, what part of the Constitution authorizes this?

[M-Rex]

I'll take one of those!

One time it rained all over my camping equipment. What kind of total are we talking about? Who's paying for this?

[Luchtaine]

The Constitution actually bans this nonsens. Article I section 7 I THINK I can't actually go look it up atm well I could but I am not going to sorry.

[dolanp]

Bad enough on its face, even worse that they don't restrict what can be bought. Well instead of a bunch of poor people there will now be a bunch of poor people with a big screen TV and some jewelry or guns.

[Deavis]

hahahaha... I'm at a loss for words and can only laugh at this one. You want to talk about reinforcing the dependence on the federal goverment for many of those people. I'm sure merchants around Houston are salivating, expect "victim specials" to entice those people to spend that money recklessly.

[gc70]

Buckle up! $2,000 is only the first instalment. The precedent cited will be the payments to survivors of 9/11 victims.

[Greg L]

While I don't particularly like it I can understand the thinking/reasoning behind it. Generally in disaster situations a person doesn't lose everything but the clothes on his back along with having his place of employment erased from the map as well and any & all financial records demolished. Given enough time most of the records can be reconstructed for everyone but that isn't going to feed/clothe/house anyone right now. Something needed to be done to get people moving in a direction where they can start to rebuild their lives, something that would be very hard to do if you were sitting in a shelter somewhere with NO money & no way to get anywhere to do anything about it.

That said, I wouldn't mind restrictions on what it could be used for.

[Flyboy]

Want to get rich?

Offer people $1500 cash for their $2000 cards.




Drug dealers, pimps, and the like don't take plastic.

[Lemon328i]

This is a huge mistake. FEMA traditionally puts money directly into people's bank accounts so that there is some level of accountability. Most of the displaced can be taken care of this way. The problem is with those who are too poor to even have a bank account. These folks, however, do generally receive subsistence checks each month (i.e. welfare). $2000 to many of them will be like winning the lottery. Without restrictions on what they can buy or some sound financial counseling, they will waste that money on frivoulous items, justifying it by saying they "deserve" a little luxury. Since they are already part of the entitlement class of American citizens, they will simply expect more money when they run out.

The debit cards should be labeled with orders to retailers to accept them only for food and clothing items under $100. The numbers should be also be restricted by VISA/MC to prevent online purchases.

[R.H. Lee]

What's to prevent you from picking up two or three, or six or twelve, for that matter? What a stupid idea. Some of those people will be killing each other for the cards and the cash. How about just providing direct food, clothing, shelter and medical attention instead.

[tomhorn]

I pay for insurance to gaurd against this type of disater but i guess cigs and booze are more important .

[50 Freak]

Nuddie bar here I come.

Lap dances for everyone. :D :D :evil: :evil:

[longeyes]

This is an important precedent.

Here comes the HillaryCard!

Hot damn! Life is good! :D

[GunGoBoom]

Want to get rich?

Offer people $1500 cash for their $2000 cards.

Drug dealers, pimps, and the like don't take plastic.

Exactly. This is a very bad idea, if for no other reason than selling them at a discount WILL go on, which is bad for the sucker/victim who has just parted some of his money ($500), and will quickly part with the rest. It should go through the state DHS food stamp program, which restricts the use, if at all.

[4v50 Gary]

I woke up late today (working swing for once). Do I qualify for one too?

[bogie]

Guys, this represents an opportunity...

I'm gonna go buy some Anheuser-Busch stock right now...

[Preacherman]

Hmmm... I have a Louisiana drivers license. If I drive across the border to Houston, four hours away, walk into the Astrodome, register, and get a free $2K card, I can be home drinking $2K worth of beer by late this evening.

Anyone available for a party, courtesy of FEMA? :D

[Sindawe]

OK, thats the bread, now when do the games begin?

[waterhouse]

Preacherman I was thinking the same thing. I've got about 10 people coming into town from Baton Rouge for a big music festival here in a couple weeks, and 4 of them are evacuees with NO listed on their driver's license. Since they aren't currently working and they have to drive through houston anyway . . .

[SLCDave]

What's to prevent you from picking up two or three, or six or twelve, for that matter?

They ought to cut off an earlobe or something to mark those that got it. That, or just be done with it and give them the mark of the beast....

[Crosshair]

WTH, I lived through the flood of 97 in Grand Forks, ND and I didn't get free money, where's mine. :neener:

[Joejojoba111]

Why are you guys being so sceptical? The Fed Gov has full confidence in everyone's ability to wisely invest for the future. You actually suggest that giving people money to play with incites them to use it as play money? For shame. And when they privatize social security I expect you'll see many more wise decisions, as all our rational individuals wisely invest their accounts in a balanced portfoilio.

[Art Eatman]

Is it not correct that most of these peoples' homes actually survived the storm itself? That their troubles began with the failure of the Ponchartrain levee? From the TV interviews, many had survived Camille, which means they had some knowledge of probabilities--and, but for some bad luck, were correct.

So if you're a shopkeeper with neither shop nor home nor access to the basics of life, what SHOULD be done? Two grand isn't much in today's world. It's hardly a month's rent in many places. And a, say, 50-year-old shopkeeper isn't gonna get a job as heavy-labor blue-collar in a city that apparently will be uninhabitable for many months.

So he's willing to work in Houston. Good. Anybody here ever started from scratch with no money whatsoever in his jeans? Where do you get first and last month's rent plus damage deposit, utility deposit, etc.?

Not everybody is in that sort of trouble--but there is somewhere around a million people who are in seriously deep doo-doo...

Art

[DeseoUnTaco]

Why do these people get money when they have a disaster? I've had disasters in my life, times when I desperately needed $2,000. Ok, so it was a disaster that happened to me and not to a large group of people, but it was just as much of a disaster to me as what happened to these people. Why didn't I then get a debit card?

This is an extremely bad precedent. Are these $2k fun-money cards (and trips to Vegas for the cops!) going to be a part of all future disasters?

Gee, now that the US has blown so many hundreds of billions of dollars on hopeless wars abroad, a useless war on terror at home, where is all this other money going to come from? The figure being tossed around is that the feds are going to spend $100bil or more in LA. Woops!

The whole thing just boggled my mind. Everyone says, "don't touch Social Security". Social Security is all "invested" in t-bills, and money from t-bills is being spent in such reckless ways, why does anyone have confidence in t-bills?

What will happen if/when the debt rating on t-bills gets lowered and the US suddenly has to pay out 10% interest on them? I think we're heading in that direction.

[Jake]

I'd bet $2000 that ever liquor store owner in Houston just about died from happiness at this news.

[rick_reno]

$2000 is a drop in the bucket. Here's a partial list of what Congress is considering.

On Tuesday as members of Congress began to grapple with colossal cost of aiding people displaced by hurricane Katrina, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. and some of her colleagues in BOTH parties said that the federal government would need to take on immense new responsibilities:

1. Medicaid health insurance for many, if not most, of the low-income people who had been evacuated from New Orleans and other Gulf Coast locales.
2. Federal reimbursement to cities and states which have taken in people from the hurricane-devastated areas.
3. New federal grants to build housing for low-income people, an idea mentioned by Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.
4. Extra social services, mental health services and grief counseling for people displaced from the Gulf Coast.

But, even these programs aren't the worst of it. What this has done is given Hillary Clinton the national stage she's been looking for - and she's going to ride this horse for all it's worth.

[longeyes]

Disaster relief > Socialism.

For the Left the real disaster is capitalism and the relief will be a massive expansion of the welfare state--if they can sell it.

[pyrguy]

I own or co-own thee pieces of property in South Lousiana. One piece in still undrewater.

Does that mean I get three of those cards??? :confused: :neener: :evil: :evil:

[scout26]

Does that mean I get three of those cards???

pyrguy,

Yep, after you get the first one, just go to the back of the line.......

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Anyone catch tonights local news in Dallas? They were showing the lines at a local shelter. The people there thought that they were handing out money here too (It was just a pilot program at the Astrodome) and were absolutely incensed that they would have to wait until tomorrow to get their $2k debit cards.

[Standing Wolf]

Only in America!

[crewsr]

and then we wonder why the entitlement society grows and grows. There is SUCH a cultural divide in this country. Those who create and produce vs those who take without question. :cuss:

doesnt matter if your a Democrat or Republician............The Fed Govt will grow and grow and grow. Both parties abuse the concept of individual liberty by telling us that this or that will make us SAFER and SECURE. The american people "at large" are cowards compared to this countries first generation. Makes we wonder if I will see Socialism take over in my lifetime. Sure we may win victories here and there but the trend is running towards a UK-like socialism.
Tell me its just New Orleans, LA and the beltway politics.....but where is the American Spirit, the moral character, the personal responsibility......and yes the truth even if it means admitting that mistakes where made..........How do I raise my two boys to men when all I see is ???? for character and grace???? Where is that John Wayne spine??
I'm tired , mad and its way past my bedtime.

[DRZinn]

Joe, that's a pretty sad attempt at an analogy, since you apparently don't see the difference between allowing the people a little more control over what you take from them, and passing out free money.

[c_yeager]

Im all for the .gov giving money to people to recover from a disaster.

My only stipulation is this; If *any* of your possessions were purchased with money that came out of someone else's paycheck, you get NOTHING since it wasnt yours anyways.

Look on the bright side though. Places like Houston just got 10,000 "wise investors" with pockets full of cash, lucky you. I would not be AT ALL suprised if people stated opening up vender-stands outside the Astrodome.

I am reminded of an old Dave Chapelle scetch. This money is just going to end up right back in the economy. its better getting spent at American stores than sitting in some .gov balance sheet anyways.

[Sindawe]

I'd have no issue if the amount were sufficient to rationally justify surrendering all future claims to land and property, or with in the ball park. $100k would do it I think, boon to some, loss to others. Take the money and start anew else where.

Of course, thats not gonna happen.

[jlh26oo]

Well I work nights at two hotels here in houston. Ever since they started getting free rooms ("just bill red cross/fema, they'll pay your hotel back right away..."), our hotel is now a zoo.

Hasn't taken long for them to take advantage- I just got a reservation for 12 ROOMS for 14 nights, by one person: "it's for my fema stay- so you guarantee it's free right? no, femas payin you back for it, so that's your job!" I put down the reservation, but told him to take it up w/the manager as to whether he gets it for free.

Any hotel that does not comply, the local television news is all over them. "Why aren't you helping out the victims? You will be reimbursed." Some hotels can't stay alive this way, having to wait for the govt to reimburse them. Smaller hotels and motels have to maintain PAYING guests to stay afloat.

I bet alot of these people getting the cards didn't have $2k worth of property to their name before the storm even came.

So move a quarter of a million of the welfare state into houston, give them free hotels, apartments, and add $2,000 each. Recipe for success. Fine. Great. Hope it helps (I'm sure LA would have done the same for us), but I also hope it ENDS HERE.

Enough.

[longeyes]

The HillaryCard will provide up to $100,000 of funny money. The actual limit on your card will be determined according to a complex bureaucratic formula based on previous social injustices, the need for promoting cultural diversity, your current state of insolvency, and the recognition that liberty is based on sustainable consumerism.

[longeyes]

There's a name for this, used once before:

Voodoo Economics.