wait, do we have a thread on this? a $200 billion bill is in congress? where's the money coming from? i know insurance companies have tightened up but federal taxpayers in no way should have to take the share of this, i see this as a state or local issue at the most.

I heard we're just adding it to the running tab we have with China.

Holy shit, is CB becoming a Republican?

I doubt that...but he has a point. The deficit is out of control. Recession should be fun for awhle...

listen, if you want to live on the coast, below sea level, in hurricaneville usa, tornado alley, a place where you'll be at severe risk of forest fires -- i think you get my point -- don't ask me to pay money to provide coverage to you.

Yep. If people don't have to pay higher premiums for coverage, they won't factor that into their decision, more people will move into disaster-prone areas, and disasters will just cause more damage.

Not to mention, like you said, where is this money coming from?

can we actually get a link before we start rushing to judgment here?

i'm trying to find something extensive on it but i'm having a hard time.

Congress just passed a 200 billion dollar spending bill and there's NOTHING about it? That can't be right.

Can I ask you to contribute to help move those who can't survive without welfare after generations of poverty?

Pfft. Republicans stopped being federalists like 30 years ago.

can you rephrase that question, or add some meat to it?

Yeah, I can't find anything on this either. Where'd you get the info?

don't laugh, but it was a discussion point during the republican debate last night.

here's some stuff. ok, so apparently it hasn't passed congress, but it looks like it passed the house and now is in a senate committee. i suppose i heard wrong.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... ?track=rss

McCain reiterates opposition to national catastrophe fund

Flashing some of the straight talk he brags about as his trademark, Republican presidential candidate John McCain didn't back away Wednesday from his opposition to creation of a national catastrophic insurance fund that some believe could help alleviate the cost of windstorm insurance in Florida.

Just six days before Florida voters go to the polls, in what has turned into a pivotal Republican presidential primary, he's been attacked on the fund issue by one of his leading opponents, Rudy Giuliani, who favors the idea.

McCain told editors and reporters at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that he favors a regional approach, rather than legislation in the House pushed by U.S. Reps. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and Tim Mahoney, D-Venus.

McCain said he wanted to express "all due respect to this beautiful state," but said he was "not in favor of spending $200 billion a year simply for the state of Florida."

Rather, he wants to fix the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the government department that was widely pilloried for its part in bungling the response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

"I do understand the problem and I do know how FEMA has to be fixed, and it has to be fixed so that we can perform the rightful role of government, which is to help people whenever there is a natural or manmade disaster or catastrophe," McCain said.

He said he'd vote against the Klein-Mahoney legislation, which he said has no chance of passing the U.S. Senate, where McCain serves as a senator from Arizona.

"For openers, maybe they'll tell me where the $200 billion is coming from," he said.

Klein said in a telephone interview that McCain's cost estimate isn't accurate.

"With all due respect to Senator McCain, he may not have read the bill," Klein said. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost at $25 million per year, nothing close to the billions McCain suggested.

Klein also dismissed the candidate's suggestion that FEMA, which is supposed to respond in the case of disasters, could be a solution to the insurance problem.

"His numbers are way off and to propose FEMA as a solution to insurance in Florida and in other parts of the country just tells me that he's really not focusing on the seriousness of the problem," Klein said.

McCain wouldn't say if that's why he hasn't received an endorsement from Florida's most popular Republican, Gov. Charlie Crist, who supports a national catastrophic fund.

"I don't know. I didn't make the connection," he said.

Giuliani, in a new TV ad, takes a veiled jab at McCain and another Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, for not supporting the idea of spreading insurance risk in disaster-prone states like Florida to taxpayers elsewhere.

"Some say we don't need a national catastrophe fund -- that FEMA can handle disasters," an announcer in Giuliani's 30-second spot says. "Others say they haven't looked at it yet and want to sit down with insurance companies first."

Giuliani's support for a national catastrophe fund contradicts his campaign line that he'll slash the size of the "central government." And he frequently hammers Democrats for proposing to use the federal government to meddle in the health insurance market -- something he's pitching for the property insurance market.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jan/25 ... king-yahoo

GOP Rivals Mix Kudos With Issues At Debate

Mitt Romney was pressed to clear up whether he favors a national catastrophic fund that would help homeowners with damage from hurricanes.

Romney responded that he favors a "natural catastrophe effort" but not a fund.

Romney added that he was not in favor of having people in Iowa or elsewhere subsidizing a fund for Florida or Massachusetts, the state where he once governed. Romney said he would call experts together to craft such a program.

McCain and Huckabee both restated their opposition to a catastrophic fund.

i think this is the bill:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D ... p/~bdfBMh::

huh?

in other words, romney is a slimeball.

I live in Massachusetts, I know the dude's a slimeball

I'm having trouble figuring out what the hell a "natural catastrophe effort" actually is.