And the greed rolls on…

A report recently published by the federal government details some of the almost 500,000 claims against the government and Army Corps of Engineers over the damage caused by hurricane Katrina. I am sure that lots of them are legitimate claims. I’m sure that many of them are reasonable. I am also sure that many are just a continuation of some peoples’ dependence upon the government to provide them with the life they feel they deserve. Almost 250 of the claims are for one billion dollars. This includes a 77 billion dollar claim by the City of New Orleans. No surprise there, after all, it was Nagin and his minions that saw to the redistribution of the annual funds for levee maintenance. One individuals claim is for 1 quadrillion dollars. I don’t even know how many zeros that is. I DO know that it dwarfs the U.S.’ annual gross domestic product of 13.2 trillion dollars in 2007.
So, where to start? I know that there is no price tag for a human life, but only 14 of the 247 billion dollar claims involve wrongful death. The highest I’ve ever read about were several hundred million. This is a whole new level of greed. I don’t know when it became fashionable to make the government pay for your grief, but it is surely in full swing now. Over the years since Katrina, most ‘victims’ have received over $178,000 each to cover loss. This is in addition to any insurance one might have had. (Paltry, of course, to the average 1.5 million awarded to survivors and victims families of the 9/11 attacks.) So who decides what is legitimate and what is not? Hopefully NOT the democrats who would sell their souls for another hundred votes. As much as people would like to believe it, it was NOT George Bush who caused the hurricane. It was NOT George Bush who destroyed the inadequately built levees. It was NOT George Bush who delayed permission for National Guard troops bringing relief to the damaged areas. (That was up to the Governor.) Funny how we can whine daily about all the money “wasted” waging the war on terror in Iraq but never utter a peep about the horrendous amount of money being thrown at New Orleans with no tangible results. Now, on top of that, we have these greedy leeches demanding more, more and even more. When will it end? When we put our collective feet down and say enough! Folks who worked hard and paid dues and had insurance before the storm are doing fine now. They have rebuilt their lives and are for the most part moving on. Others are hoping for a never ending gravy train funded by you and me.
Now here’s the REALLY sick part. 15 of the billion dollar claims were filed by businesses. This includes insurance companies. Wait a minute…why would an insurance company file a claim against the government? Pure, simple greed. I’m sure they were insured and have since rebuilt their facilities. So whats the claim for? Is it because they had to pay a lot of claims? That is why people pay premiums. If the company will go broke otherwise, so be it. Consumers are most often at the losing end of the insurance gamble. I could not care less if the insurance company loses sometimes. Is it to compensate their employees for whatever they went through? No, it’s a claim for the company. This tells me that the only benefactor of a windfall payoff from Uncle Sam would go directly in the pockets of the business owners. Why? They are GREEDY!
Lawyers for some of the claimants proclaim that there is no way you could put a price tag on the horror these folks went through. In fact, they say, nothing like it has ever occurred in our country. It’s true, that New Orleans DID suffer some unique circumstances. As did the victims of Hugo, Andrew, the California wildfires, annual midwest flooding, the northeastern floods, various tornados…etc, etc. The difference is that New Orleans has many minorities in its population who feel they were done wrong and that it is up to the government to fix their woes. If one were poor and homeless before the storm, what gives them the right to be a millionaire after the storm? Simple greed. We have soldiers in Iraq VOLUNTARILY suffering through circumstances that make Katrina look like a picnic. These young men and women do this for Honor and Duty and VERY LITTLE PAY. Shame on everyone who just wants a bigger piece of a pie they didn’t earn. In my mind, the government doesn’t owe a damn thing to the city of New Orleans or anyone else. If you were not insured that is your problem, not the problem of my tax dollars. You went through a horrible ordeal, yes, as have many before you and after. Time to move on.