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Texas Gov. Rick Perry Cut Fire Department Funding by 75%
According to KVUE-TV, the state of Texas, under Gov. Rick Perry, cut state funding for the volunteer fire departments that protect most of the state from wildfires. Firefighters have actually been dipping into their own pockets to fight fires.
Volunteer departments that were already facing financial strain had their funding cut from $30 million to $7 million. There are 879 volunteer fire departments in Texas; 114 are paid fire departments, while 187 departments are a combination of volunteer and paid.
At a press conference Monday, Perry promised to seek federal disaster relief and said that FEMA would be in the state by Wednesday.
While the Texas governor has been highly critical of FEMA in the past, he dodged questions from CBS’ Erica Hill on Tuesday's 'Early Show,' insisting that now was not the time to worry about reforming the agency.
Perry said: “The issue is taking care of these people right now. We can work our way through any conversations about how to make agencies more efficient, how to make Department of Defense equipment, for instance, more available. There are a lot of issues we can talk about, but the fact of the matter is now is not the time to be trying to work out the details of how to make these agencies more efficient. Let’s get people out of harm’s way.”
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Comments
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There's nothing wrong with
There's nothing wrong with volunteer fire departments. Local communities do it all across the country...especially away from densely populated areas. The state cannot afford to pay for all local communities to fight fires. Communities step up and do it on their own, as they should, with volunteers. My town just bought a brand spanking new large fire truck and we only have 600 occupants with volunteer fire fighters. Geez, people, the government cannot be expected to take care of everyone and every community. Cradle to grave mentality. How do you people deal with disaster in your own life? Do you call Rick Perry?
Liberalism is a mental disease.
Did your volunteer fire
Did your volunteer fire department put out fires in the state park too? Was your volunteer fire department trained to put out 17,000 acre wildfires? Did your volunteer fire department have smoke jumpers and water dropping airplanes and helicopters? I'm sure your volunteer fire department was very good at putting out house fires but for fires of this size it takes heavy duty equipment and serious professionals with years of training and experience. That equipment has to be paid for and those people don't work for free.
Also, it's nice that your 600 person community had money to put towards a fire truck but I virtually guarantee you that your fire department got grants from the state and/or federal government for it too. Also, while the firefighters may be volunteers the government pays for their insurance, fire hall etc. Volunteer fire departments still cost the government money.
I take care of most disasters in my life but if a giant wildfire is racing towards my city I expect the government to put it out. That's why we have government. To take care of problems that are too big for us. Like wildfires, and wars, and earthquakes.
My point wasn't to say "put
My point wasn't to say "put out the fire yourself". It was to stress that local communities form fire departments of their own without state help. My town did not get a governemnt grant to get the fire truck, by the way. It was voted on and we are paying for it.
When government doesn't have the money for stuff it just plain doesn't have the money. In the red is in the red. I know the left likes to just continue to run up debt, but someone has to put the heavy foot down and make some cuts in places people don't like in order to balance the books. Other than that, I can't judge the decision, because I know damn good and well it's not because he wanted people's homes to burn down.
Liberalism is a mental disease.
I agree, I don't believe that
I agree, I don't believe that Rick Perry wanted peoples houses to burn down. He just didn't really care if they did. While his state burned he cut the funding of the organizations that would fight those fires. I don't know how else to describe it other than to say he cared more about not raising taxes than he did about protecting Texans. Now in your community they had the foresight to know that if they wanted to continue fighting fires successfully they would need to raise taxes to pay for it. So, you raised taxes and bought that firetruck. Your community was even wise enough to do it when there weren't currently fires burning because you knew that eventually there would be fires you would need to put out. Perry and the Republicans in the legislature on the other hand didn't even fund the fighting of their current fires, much less thinking about future fires. Yes, communities form their own fire departments but community fire departments are not able to fight wildfires on the scale that TX is dealing with. Yes, in the red is in the red but there are 2 sides to a budget equation. You can cut spending or raise revenue. Rick Perry chose to let his state burn rather than increase taxes on people and industries that could undoubtedly afford it.
That's speculation. I can
That's speculation. I can just as easily say that Obama is intentionally destroying our economy in order to force a socialist utopia....but I don't. I can't speculate as to why Perry and the Republicans did what they did, and they had to have a reason. I don't know the whole story, and you don't either.
Liberalism is a mental disease.
That's not really an accurate
That's not really an accurate comparison because Obama is actively trying to fix the economy. You could say that Obama is trying to fix the economy but he's failing at it but you can't really say he's not doing anything or that he's trying to destroy it.
If, in response to the fires Perry had bought ice cream trucks for fire departments instead of fire trucks your comparison would be accurate. At least then he would have been trying to do something but failing at it. He actively cut the budgets of the agencies that would resolve the problems Texas was having.
A more accurate comparison would be if Chinese troops landed on the West coast and Obama cut the military budget by 75%.
No, my point is that it's
No, my point is that it's subjective because we don't have the arguments as to why the cuts were made. I did a search and the only thing I could find were from left wing web sites making accusations. This is not a news story anywhere, which leads me to believe that there's something we are not being told.
My Obama comparison is very much the same thing. You have left wing pundits making accusations against Perry because of what they view as consequences for his bad judgement. Our economy is taking a dive because of Obama making bad judgments. Same thing. If I were to make the accusation that Obama is doing it intentionally, it's no different than you saying Perry did it intentionally (or didn't care).
Liberalism is a mental disease.
Does it really matter what
Does it really matter what was behind the decision to cut the budget for firefighting agencies during massive wildfires? The legislature had a clear choice. They could raise taxes to pay for the services Texans needed or they could cut those services while those services were most needed. They chose to cut the services. I still think my Chinese invasion comparison is a pretty apt one.
I don't necessarily disagree
I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I'm not going to make a judgement without getting the full story. I have seen left wing sites flat out lie about things and twist reality. For example, I watched Rush Limbaugh spell out a list for his immigration policy. It was very, very harsh...and I was even shocked as a conservative. But at the end he specifically stated that those were not his policy wishes at all, but rather actual Mexican laws involving American immigration. Yet, the next day I watched channel after channel and website after website show Rush making those comments and left off what he ended with. Pundit sites distort the truth, so I'm not going to take all of the arguments from the left as fact without the full story.
Liberalism is a mental disease.
Government is to protect
Government is to protect their citizens. Not problems that are too big for us. That's whiny reason. Also vague. You rely on the government too much based on that comment alone.
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid. - Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Something that keeps getting
Something that keeps getting missed in so many of the stories about the Texas wildfires is the fact that they've had wildfires burning around the state for almost a year.
"For nearly 300 days, wildfires have been taking a toll on drought-stricken Texas, scorching communities and creating dangerous conditions." http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/07/texas.fires/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Also, as we talk about the $23million in cuts to the fire departments don't forget the other $34million in cuts to the TX state Forest Service they made in the last year since they would have been a large part of fighting these fires too. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/210134/20110907/texas-wildfires-2011rick-perry-cut-firefighters-budget-texas-forest-service.htm
So, to summarize. WHILE Texas burned (literally burned) Rick Perry and the Republican legislature made massive cuts to all of the services that could do something about it. They could have raised taxes a little on the wealthy who can afford it. They could have taxed the oil companies who literally make billions of dollars in pure profit (not revenue, profit) to pull in the difference. There are countless ways they could have raised the money but instead they chose to cut firefighting and forest service budgets WHILE these wildfires raged. WTF is wrong with these people?
The cuts didn't cause the
The cuts didn't cause the fire. Liberals did.
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid. - Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
This is suggesting that he
This is suggesting that he just cut funding without saying why...therefore allowing those that don't like him to think they have something to hate him on (as if they needed anything). This is misleading. It doesn't tell the whole story.
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid. - Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Why don't you try and learn
Why don't you try and learn something about the subjects you're commenting on. You just weigh in with no facts to back you up and then you put the same quote from William Arthur Ward. You did the same thing on an article about The Talk. Same quote, another uninformed comment.
You're right. This article
You're right. This article doesn't tell the whole story. It doesn't mention, for instance, why FEMA is coming to Texas. It doesn't make mention of which counties had reduced funding, or if the reductions were primarily in traditionally Democrat counties or Republican counties. The article doesn't mention whether Perry spearheaded the cut or even whether he was in favor of it.
Since the article is so severely lacking, perhaps you could shed some light on these deficiencies.
Worst governor ever. Thanks
Worst governor ever. Thanks for letting our state burn, Rick.
You lack backing. Worst post
You lack backing. Worst post ever.
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid. - Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)