Go find another $60 billion in the couch cushions
Donald Trump comes a-callin’ today in Western North Carolina. “Significant traffic impacts” are expected. It is typical of presidential visits: no details released publicly until the last minute. It’s a security thing:
“I’m going to North Carolina, very importantly, first,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday evening from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, before confirming the rest of his itinerary about heading to the West Coast.
If nothing else, the visit suggests our blue city won’t have its recovery funds slashed just yet. Despite so much attention to candidates and “authenticity,” don’t expect much from any Trumpish attempt to mimic empathy today (pay attention to my bolding):
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein is planning to meet President Donald Trump on the tarmac of Asheville Regional Airport during Trump’s Jan. 24 visit to Western North Carolina, a spokesperson for Stein told the Citizen Times.
Earlier in the week, Stein, a Democrat, said Trump’s planned visit to WNC, which was ravaged by Tropical Storm Helene nearly four months ago, was “very good news” for the region’s residents. The storm killed more than 100 people across the state and caused an estimated $60 billion in damage, according to the latest estimate from the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management. During Stein’s first week in office, he issued five executive orders to aid Helene recovery.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis stepped up to spread some more disinfo for the boss:
“President Trump’s visit on Friday is welcome news for the thousands of families dealing with a state of uncertainty when it comes to securing housing. Under President Biden, FEMA’s failure to act and communicate swiftly put vulnerable families at risk with freezing temperatures outside. Despite our continued pressure, FEMA made little progress in providing direct housing solutions for those most affected by Helene. Things will be changing under President Trump, and his visit shows his Administration is committed to the people of Western North Carolina as he promised during the campaign. I look forward to working with the Trump-Vance Administration to ensure that every available federal resource is deployed and that red tape preventing families from accessing housing is eliminated.”
Except Trump plans to dump disaster relief management on states (the way he made them compete for ventilators and other supplies during Covid?). He told Fox News (New York Times):
Mr. Trump continued, “The FEMA is getting in the way of everything.” Referring to Oklahoma, he said: “If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it. You don’t need — and then the federal government can help them out with the money.”
Project 2025, the blueprint for a Republican administration that was produced by the Heritage Foundation, calls for flipping the financial burden of response to small disasters so that 75 percent is carried by states and the rest by the federal government.
Define “small.” Of course, Project 2025’s war plan will not last beyond contact with a hurricane washing over Mar-a-Lago.
Shifting the burden for disaster relief to states “would hit Republican-leaning states hardest, federal spending figures suggest,” the Guardian notes. “Since 2015, states that voted for Trump last year have received $31bn in assistance from Fema, with storm-prone Florida, Texas and Louisiana leading the way, compared with just $7bn for states that voted Democratic.”
North Carolina’s 2024 budget was $34 billion. Josh Stein is unlikely to find another $60 billion in the governor’s mansion couch cushions.
I don’t think I’ve posted this here before. You’ve seen Helene flood photos from the river valleys. This is what Helene’s arrival was like for residents higher upslope. Many of those slopes are now as bare as Pacific Palisades hillsides. There will be spring rains and mudslides. Trump will have moved on. FEMA may be dismantled or defunded by then.