The Federal Flood Insurance Program, known as the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is a total disaster, pun intended, of course, you know me. How bad has it got? Well, they are redesigning flood maps to help get more premiums to pay their costs – costs that are out of line simply because FEMA is so wasteful, politically correct, and inefficient, even if it is one of the most efficient agencies in our federal government. Government. Yeah, let’s talk about all of this, shall we?
The GAO (Government Accounting Office) published an interesting report on September 18, 2013 titled; “National Flood Insurance Program: Continued Attention Needed to Address Challenges,” GAO-13-858T, which was quite revealing, stated in the introduction, among other things, that the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has been on the “high risk list” since 2006, and owes more than $ 24 billion to the US Treasury, not including the devastating Boulder Colorado flood in the summer of 2013. The report later stated;
“The financial situation of the NFIP highlights the structural weaknesses in the way the program has been financed, mainly its fee structure. The annual amount that the NFIP collects in both total and subsidized risk premiums is generally not enough to cover its costs. operations, claims and principal payments and interest payments on debt owed to the Treasury, especially in years of catastrophic floods, such as 2005. “
In 2005 they are talking about Katrina, Rita and various storm surge hits from the hurricane and the flooding of the Lake Ponchartrain levee breaches. Also included in the current deficit and bankruptcy fund is money allocated for political reasons during Obama’s re-election campaign in October / November 2012, Super Storm Sally, I mean Sandy-Pants, where the American taxpayer took it in his pants short and large. The government paid anyone who caught a cold or wet their shoes.
Another interesting testimony was given by the Director of FEMA to the United States Senate subcommittee, you can also read about this statement; “Written Testimony from FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate to a Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Economic Policy Subcommittee hearing titled” Implementation of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012: One Year After enactment “which appeared in the online archives on September 18, 2013.
Why is all this happening? Because the government thought that it could solve all its problems by selling insurance where the private markets did not dare because of risk. The government, in its infinite wisdom and bureaucracy, thought it could run the program better and more profitably. Given that that has never happened in government to my knowledge, whether we’re talking about Amtrak, the US Postal Service, or ObamaCare, one has to wonder why anyone is surprised this isn’t working . Worse now, bankrupt FEMA and the NFIP want to drench those who are not at risk with higher forced premiums to pay their deficits. Oh.
Yeah, alas, as a middle-class consumer homeowner in America, they now have the DHS, yes, the Department of Homeland Security calls it a national security issue, convenient, which means they will have the power to impose their authority on anyone and, in this case, perhaps everyone they choose. Consider all of this and think about it.