know, that we had someone in office, who could do something about it. not so implicit knock against governor romney, who has made it clear, both in that convention speech, but in speeches prior to that convention speech, that he just doesn t buy the notion that mankind, humankind, is responsible in any way for the changes in climate that we ve been experiencing. martin, can i make a quick point? please. just to be clear, something i said earlier. i wanted to get back to that, it is the case that fema, funding for fema, is not exempt from the automatic cuts or so-called sequestration. so if the sequestration does occur, these automatic cuts, $110 billion next year, that will hit fema as well. another good reason to try to make sure that doesn t happen. indeed. i believe we have ed markey with us at the moment. is that right, sir?
romney, finger in the air, wind blowing, oh, it s a heavy storm, i support fema. this is embarrassing. it only took him 48 hours to support fema. you would hope that president romney could respond to a storm faster than he did about fema. but it s very hard to square with what he s saying about fema now with the very morality-laden approach that he took in the republican debates. remember, what he s describing in the statement is actually status quo, it s not big change. but it is a big change from what he said before. which is, you know, fema funding, if it comes from debt, which every extra dollar does is a moral problem for this nation. is a moral problem. it s not just an issue of money. it s a moral problem. more than the moral problem of dealing with people in need in a disaster zone. now that has been jettisoned, because hep wants to appear moderate. it s very hard to know who the real mitt romney is, but at least he could speed up his
previously and repeatedly, particularly in the debates, that he would like to remove an organization like fema. right. now, not only is that highly inefficient, in terms of resourcing, but can i ask you, would it not also likely raise local taxes, because if each state is required to provide emergency assistance, then each state has to fund what the federal government is providing right this moment. precisely. instead of having a centralized disaster relief fund, which, of course, fema represents, each state would have to do so. by the way, they wouldn t do so. because state budgets don t work that way. everything is fungible. and in tough times like now, states can t run budget deficits. that fund would be dry, i guarantee you. and what s going to happen? the federal government s going to say, no, forget it? that s just not part of our budget? again, you know, mitt romney was really stuck yesterday. i thought it was quite embl emblematic that he wouldn t
about what america s all about. you know, we go through tough times but we bounce back. and the reason we bounce back is because we look out for one another. and we don t leave anybody behind. so my commitment to the people on this block, the people of this community, and the people of this state is that that same spirit will carry over all the way through until our work is done. all right? thank you very much, everybody. that was the president of the united states with governor chris christie, speaking about his experience there today, in new jersey, describing a number of personal anecdotes, meeting a mother with an 8-month-old baby, talking about the fact that she ran out of diapers and formula and that the federal government was there for her. speaking about a 15-year-old boy la looking after his disabled mother and displaying the kind of strength and resilience that the president speaks of as being essentially american. we re joined now by
so fema s involvement in making sure that we can make these communities whole again, quite literally, is really critical. congresswoman, you seem to be hinting at the fact that the republican nominee for president has, up until this point, wanted to dissolve fema. no, not at all, although i think that that expression of sentiment was unacceptable, but that s not what i m referring to at all. what i m saying is that when you go through a natural disaster like this, knowing, because we have fantastic experts at the national hurricane center, who are able to tell us that a storm is coming, and we get enough time and enough notice now to really prepare, we ve seen what s happened in previous storms, when prepositioning didn t take place, when there was not the preparation and the prepositions, and we also have seen, as we did in katrina, when people are left sort of twisting in the wind, you know, forgive