Owning up to a disaster

Please note that I hope a pray for all who experienced losses in the Florida hurricanes, and I am in no way against federal aid for recovery.

Tom Blackburn isn't either. But he does wonder how the new aid package to Florida jives with the "ownership society" the President's claims he wants to further.

The money they are talking about is usually called "tax dollars." It is an article of Republican faith that the federal government wastes it. On his campaign expeditions, the president often says the taxpayers can spend their money more wisely than the government. To be consistent, shouldn't the Bushes be telling people to dip into their savings or trust funds or whatever and take ownership of the damage hurricanes did to their lives and businesses?

That would be the Ownership Society the president promotes on his daily visits to Ohio, Pennsylvania and points south. If we can provide for our old age better than Social Security, why shouldn't we provide for disasters better than the Federal Emergency Management Agency? Why did the feds pass out blue tarps for damaged roofs when it would have been more entrepreneurial for homeowners to buy their own tarps?

Indeed. Why not stop collecting taxes altogether? Surely we should all own our part of national defense, homeland security, the roadways that we drive on, our police and fire systems...