By Ryan Nisly.
As Hurricane Helene brought damage to the Southeastern US last week, it highlighted the need for the United States to provide aid to, and invest in, itself. This problem has shown itself in the past through natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and through preventable disasters such as the Flint, Michigan water crisis and the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated that “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) does not have the funds to make it through the [hurricane] season.”
Conservatives point at FEMA’s spending for the humanitarian needs of migrants at the southern US border as the cause of this budget deficiency. Manufacturing fear of immigrants has once again been a tactic during this election cycle. The $780 Million that the right wing sheds tears over is a drop in the bucket compared to the overflowing US military budget of over $850 Billion. That is where funding must come from!
We’re told that our bloated military budget is to keep Americans safe, but foreign threats are not the largest threat to Americans. The US Government must focus on ensuring that all Americans have the essentials needed to live, at minimum.
In addition to natural disasters, the US Government has shown a lackadaisical response to other crises such as gun violence, healthcare costs and access, public health crises such as the AIDS epidemic and Covid-19, infrastructural integrity, and crime. That is why we must move the money to human needs now!
