Posted 11/29/2005 05:51:00 PM by Douglas

I don't know whether I'm way too smart or way too dumb to understand what's wrong with this steaming pile of crap, but I smell a big one. "Retroactive Insurance?!?" What word doesn't belong in that sentence?

As Congress considers long-term proposals to spur recovery in hurricane-ravaged areas, a rift has emerged between Democrats and Republicans over legislation to provide some hurricane victims with retroactive coverage under the federal flood insurance program.

The proposal would apply to property owners who suffered hurricane flood damage this year but did not have flood insurance policies because their property was not located in federally designated flood areas that are subject to mandatory purchase requirements. To be eligible, those property owners would have to have purchased other types of hazard insurance before Hurricane Katrina struck.

A hand-out is a hand-out, so why sugar coat it? But to totally disguisie it as a 'retroactive policy' is not only criminal, but an insult to all the policy paying members of Katrina's wake that are still waiting for an adjuster. What about those dumb sumbitches that paid for their policies before the disaster hit? Are they going to get a break? Prolly not. But it gets better:

"These were people who were outside the floodplain," said Watt, whose amendment failed on a 34-32 vote after more than an hour of contentious debate. "There wasn't any reason for these people to buy flood insurance."

There wasn't a reason? What's he smoking? I live 13 feet above sea level along Clear Creek, yet mysteriously out of the flood plain. During Rita, the expected storm surge was 26 feet if she made a direct hit on Galveston Bay. I don't live in the flood plain, either, but I have flood insurance for a reason. Mainly, because I live 13 feet above sea level on Clear Creek, I have a perfunctory knowledge of basic arthritic (26-13), and I don't own a john boat.
There has to be a point where welfare and insurance diverge.