6mo ago

Biden says federal government to cover 100% of costs for initial LA fire recovery

abcnews.go.com

Summary

President Biden announced the federal government will cover 100% of costs for initial disaster response to the Los Angeles wildfires for 180 days.

The funding includes debris removal, temporary shelters, and first responder salaries.

Biden declared a major disaster, allowing immediate aid access, and directed the Pentagon to assist with firefighting resources.

With 28,000 acres burned, five deaths, and mass evacuations, Biden urged Congress to provide additional aid.

FEMA is coordinating recovery efforts on-site.

59 comments

Just to confirm, there's no plan to subsidize the rebuilding of $40,000,000 mansions, right?
- I don’t know about the US, but in the UK, rebuilding would be covered by the homeowner’s buildings insurance.
  Although insurance companies would probably try to claim it as an Act Of God to get out of it. Don’t know how that would go legally…
  
  I'm an Atheist. Act of God is nonsense. What does it even mean? It can mean whatever the fucking insurance wants it to mean and it's horseshit
  
  I don’t know about the US, but in the UK, rebuilding would be covered by the homeowner’s buildings insurance.
  A lot of these places were dropped from their insurance because insurance companies made the risk calculation.
  Edit: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fires-california-palisades-fire-homeowners-insurance-state-farm-fair-losses/
  
  Acts of God are covered by homeowners insurance unless explicitly stated otherwise. A homeowner in the Palisades without fire insurance is.....playing with fire.
  
  I haven't read the articles but there's a bunch of headlines that insurance companies were dropping a lot of houses in the Palisades area.
  
  Very much depends on the insurance held
  
  Holy shit, if that's how they wanna play this, God's telling me to shoot some insurance fucks.
- FEMA provides assistance to make essential repairs to homes in some instances, but does not provide rebuilding assistance is my understanding. They do provide funding for temporary shelter and essential supplies, but those amounts are not tied to income.
- No mention of rebuilding subsidies for homeowners. I assume they’ll be assisting with state-funded infrastructure after recovery as well.
  Meeting with federal officials at the White House, Biden said the funds would go toward debris removal, temporary shelters, salaries for first responders and more for 180 days.
- Isn't that why you have insurance
  
  For sure, it is. But in the likely event that insurance providers somehow deny the claim, the cynic in me expects the government to provide socialized support for the wealthy as soon as it can.
- Rich tend to have power and influence. If biden wants to create a legacy for him and his associates (whether his kins or the party members), he needs to serve the rich people's needs first and foremost.
  It is only rational that he does that. Isn't it?
Proof that there's always money from Uncle Sam to help the super rich.
- There are plenty of people affected by this fire who are not super rich. Something like 1 in 34 Americans lives in LA County, IIRC, and most of them aren’t super rich. Yes the Palisades area is pretty affluent, but not all of the surrounding areas are. What’s more, the effort to STOP the fire protects everyone.
  Besides, most of who we think of as rich in LA is nowhere near the level of the ultra-wealthy whose wealth we should be redistributing. The 400 richest Americans have over $5 trillion in wealth. A-list actors and directors and movie producers are a drop in the bucket in comparison.
  The numbers in this are now out of date because it’s from 2021, but it’s still worth looking at.
  
  Oh, I'm not opposed to stopping the fires. the best way way to do that is to tax anyone burning fossil fuels out of existence.
  
  Yeah! Don't hate the people who only have enough wealth to not work for the next several generations! There's even RICHER people out there!
  The median home value in the palisades is $3,485,831. That's more than double the median lifetime earnings of an American.
- Two co-workers of my other half lost homes, one lost a family member too. They are service workers, I can assure you they are not rich.
  Perhaps you prefer everyone gets nothing as long as it prevents the rich from getting anything too? That’s some republican level thinking - y’know, where no poor people get any help because a freeloader or two might get something.
  
  I think the heart of the accusation is "initial" in the headline. We're all seeing a repeat of bank bailouts, ppp loans, etc, where the bucket is going to run out immediately before anybody who actually needs it gets a drop, and everybody else is going to end up footing the bill.
  
  The difference between your service worker friends and their ultra wealthy neighbors is that your friends will likely have their insurance claims denied, delayed and defended. Meanwhile the wealthy neighbors will cash in on their multi-million dollar art insurance on top of the housing insurance, even if they managed to have their servants sneak the art out in their spare bentley.
  Then next year when your friends are still scraping by on savings the increase in premiums will come in so they can help pay for the payouts that went the rich.
  If they are lucky they'll get 80% of the value of the house paid out and nothing for belongings.
Trump will let Cali burn.
- Trump would sell NFTs of the ash mounds found in LA, then rug pull and move the assets to the Cayman Islands.
B u better get them checks signed right now
Might as well make the last time it ever happens a good one.
Good call, Joe.
- Its so that 47 cant walk it back and hold the state hostage by witholding relief funds... Again.
  
  Then California withholds it's funds to the federal government...
And here I am still waiting on FEMA to get their shit together and get me the money they owe me from over 3 months ago.
Say what you want about him but the military is sending 10 water helicopters and every fire plane it has. There's also over a thousand ground personnel going to help. And if you've looked at the fire recently you'll see why, there's a real danger it breaks into the semi-urban area.
Trump would 100% be laughing while playing.the liar (lyre)
Isn't that socialism or communism or government over reach though? How can Republicans stand for this?!

59 comments