A number of
people who were ineligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) aid
but were nevertheless mistakenly given money by the government after Hurricane
Sandy are now complaining about being asked to repay
it to the taxpayers on the grounds that they are poor, elderly or disabled.
The money, several
millions of dollars of it, was supposed to cover the costs of temporary housing
but these folks admittedly spent it on other stuff. They were ineligible for
the government assistance in the first place, either because of errors,
misunderstandings of the rules or outright fraud.
Now they
claim they were told by FEMA officials initially that the aid was a “gift
from Obama.” We're on a fixed income. I don't have that kind of
money!" explained one disabled recipient of a FEMA check in the
amount of $2,486 he was not entitled to.
Let’s see if
I understand this issue correctly. The federal government is simply giving away
bundles of taxpayer money to lots of people it deems are “eligible” that
sustained damage after a big storm but perhaps didn’t take the precaution of
buying insurance. They aren’t expected to pay it back. The rest of us saps who
suffer the same kind of damage from storms or other disasters are expected to
fend for ourselves.
Some of the
free money recipients that were not entitled to the cash even under the generous
rules of the government program are now complaining that, even though they were
ineligible to get the cash, they nevertheless shouldn’t be expected to pay the
money back because they are poor, disabled or old.
Poor,
disabled and elderly folks should not be obligated to pay back money they
admittedly weren’t entitled to in the first instance goes the argument. If the
taxpayers give them money by mistake it’s finder’s keeper’s loser’s weepers,
they say. Young able bodied recipients though, must re-pay the money. It’s a
new concept in commercial law.
The bottom
line, however, is that what the government giveth, the government can take
away.
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