This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy cried...
"Let me rip off the government for millions of dollars."
From Knight Ridder via Needlenose:
U.S. Paying a Premium to Cover Storm-damaged RoofsNEW ORLEANS - Across the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast, thousands upon thousands of blue tarps are being nailed to wind-damaged roofs, a visible sign of government assistance.
The blue sheeting - a godsend to residents whose homes are threatened by rain - is rapidly becoming the largest roofing project in the nation's history.
It isn't coming cheap.
Knight Ridder has found that a lack of oversight, generous contracting deals and poor planning mean that government agencies are shelling out as much as 10 times what the temporary fix would normally cost.
The government is paying contractors an average of $2,480 for less than two hours of work to cover each damaged roof - even though it's also giving them endless supplies of blue sheeting for free....
Jim Pogue, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the agency strictly followed government contracting requirements and did all it could to get the best deal possible for the roofing work, given the magnitude of the task and the need to protect vulnerable homes as quickly as possible.
Pogue also said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which by statute is in charge of the program, asked the Corps to manage the program because FEMA's resources were spread thin...
In normal circumstances, Lowery said, his company would charge $300 to tarp a 2000-square-foot roof in Austin. For that same size job, the government is paying $2,980 to $3,500, or about 10 times as much, plus additional administrative fees that can't be readily calculated.
And the Golden Porker Award for pork barrel politics goes to....Oh hell. We already know who it goes to.
Would somebody please explain to me again why the Social Credit Reform Alliance Conservative Party wants us to be more like Americans?
Why?
Because, as Uncle Dick always says when he talks to folks like walkin' Mike from the Mighty Fraser, "Deficits don't matter, Reagan proved that."
No?
Wait.
That can't be it.
On second thought, maybe they just like the idea of trickle-down cronyism.
.
As much as the federal Liberals have been criticized for their shameless corruption, it sure pales in comparison next to what's going on south of the border - and at least we're in the painful process of sorting through our filthy laundry. It's hard to imagine Bushco and the Repubs ever being fully held to account for their litany of horrors. It's quite a legacy.
I think the Gulf reconstruction is the new American Gold Rush, with a guilty and embarassed federal government paying the tab. Their taxpayers will eventually get completely fed up, but their resentment will focus on the citizens whose homes were wreaked rather than on the agencies who are overpaying so much.
Good comments above.
I like the digs gotten in at Stephen Harper and crew.
"Throw the bums out!!!!" is the CPC mantra. But it's the party of Mulroney. The party of Klein and Harris. And their cheques are written by the same filthy oil industry crooks who sign the campaign contributions for the GOP.
After all, it ain't his own money bush II is throwing away.
You're absolutely right.
Instead, we should allocate a limited budget, and let people wait their turn for relief at the government-approved prices. The fact that almost nobody is available to do the work at those prices shouldn't discourage anyone: the government, in its benevolent wisdom double-plus knows what the prices should be and won't redirect resources from other, more valuable tasks to get the job done. Free-market pricing for such a huge task would be wasteful.
After all, if you can wait years for a new hip while you're unable to walk anymore, surely you can tolerate a little bit of rain damaging your house for a year or two.