President Joe Biden on Thursday announced the federal government would cover 100% of costs of the initial federal disaster response to the Los Angeles wildfires.
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.
No, fire insurance is a required part of home owners insurance in California, at least for now, but I'm sure the cost of this fire will have insurers squirming to get out of that.
Acts of God are covered by homeowners insurance unless explicitly stated otherwise. A homeowner in the Palisades without fire insurance is.....playing with fire.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.