Next, imagine a disaster strikes in the middle of your run for the White House. Hurricane, earthquake, tornado... again, doesn't matter. Just some generic disaster. With me so far?
Now your competition... the President of the United States... gets to look all presidential and all marshaling the resources of the Federal Government to provide assistance to the states, mobilizing FEMA and declaring his vow to "help the nation through this tragedy" in a timely manner.
Now, being a good Conservative and Wealthy Corporate Executive, you're already on the record as suggesting the possible privatization of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, impressing upon the American people your solemn belief that Private Industry is far better suited to handle such matters than the bureaucracy of Big Government™. So while the President is out looking all "Presidential", don'tcha think NOW would make for the PERFECT opportunity to put your money where your mouth is and show the country that a Corporate Leader can rally Corporate America to step up and do a better job of disaster relief than the Federal government?
Or do you host a bake sale?
Because what Mitt Romney did yesterday/Tuesday hosting a donation drive in Ohio for the Red Cross, was not much more helpful than that... in fact, an ACTUAL "bake sale" might have been MORE helpful since the Red Cross says what they really need right now is money, not provisions that need to be checked, cleaned and distributed... all of which requires manpower they just can't spare in the midst of a crisis.
No, what Gov. Romney SHOULD have been doing in this crisis is call up his fellow corporate titans and organize corporate-sponsored relief efforts, supplying money, services, food & water, and heavy machinery to the cleanup effort. But he didn't. And you know why. Because they'd laugh in his face.
Corporations don't do anything for free unless they think it will make them more money down the road. If they tried to do everything FEMA does every time there's a disaster, they'd go broke in a month.
Romney also suggested in his 2011 debate response [ibid first link] of possibly "turning disaster relief over to the states". More Libertarian nonsense. The ONLY way the country can afford to pay out tens of Billions in Disaster Relief is BECAUSE the entire nation is paying for it with their tax dollars. Taxes paid in California and Nebraska go to pay for Hurricane relief in Florida & Virginia. And taxes paid in Michigan & Texas aid California following an earthquake. To dump the entire cost off on individual states would plunge them into bankruptcy overnight.
Well... maybe not "overnight", Individual states might be able to hang on for at least a few months before going belly up... unlike Corporate America
BTW: What's with Romney always "handing out food"?
Yes America, we need a president that "knows how to get things done". And that's Barack Obama.
