Russia Today: The Alyona Show- Alyona Minkovski: 'How To Pay For Irene'

Source:Russia Today- Alyona Minkovski, talking about Hurricane Irene, courtesy of President Vladimir Putin's Russia Today Network.

"RT (formerly Russia Today) is a state-controlled international television network funded by the federal tax budget of the Russian government.[5][6] It operates pay television channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, and Russian.

RT operates as a multilingual service with conventional channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (since 2010),[7] RT UK (since 2014) and other regional channels also offer some locally based content.

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an "autonomous non-profit organization", founded by the Russian news agency, RIA Novosti, on 6 April 2005.[3][8] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO "TV-Novosti" on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia." 

From Wikipedia 

"We have seen a lot of brave stand-ups from the mainstream media during hurricane and now it's on to cover the costs of the damages. But we'll take a look at Eric Cantor discussing the savings. And Alyona will break down areas of bloated government spending, where some of these funds could go to relief." 

From The Alyona Show

I have a wild idea: instead of waiting for natural disasters to occur every year, which are as predictable as having to pay your taxes in April every year orr snow in Minnesota or heat eaves in Texas, hurricanes in the Southeast and then borrowing the money from China or Russia to pay for the disaster relief, let's pay for these things up front. And yes, that actually means putting money down. 

I'm about to use an evil term in America: tax increases, plural because not just one but two tax increases even in this rotten economy. And I would be fine with cutting taxes and spending somewhere else to make up the difference. 

All rational people in America (as few as that may be) know there's plenty of waste in the Federal Government to make up the difference. And I'm not advocating for a middle class tax increase, at least not a plus-tax increase, but revenue-neutral. And anyone who reads my blog, knows that I'm not a Socialist. I would actually be an insult to Socialists and socialism. And so this is not why I'm advocating for two tax increases to pay for disaster relief, not just for Hurricane Irene but all natural disasters in the future. 

I'm doing this because I believe in fiscal responsibility and I know what that term means as well: paying for what you do and only doing what you need to do and can afford. And if you can't afford to pay for what you need, you go get the revenue somewhere else. Thats what fiscal responsibility is and disaster relief is clearly something we need. 

We can't as a country let our people suffer, especially for no fault of their own, that would just be immoral. Government clearly has a role but limited here in addressing the suffering and damage of disasters like this, Hurricane Irene was actually pretty mild compared with its potential. 

I live in Maryland in the Washington Area and all we got out of it, was some rain and wind on Saturday. And I didn't even lose power except for thirty seconds. Then it was back to warm humid and sunny which is normal for this area on Sunday. I believe in fiscal responsibility so much that I don't even believe government should borrow money to pay for disaster relief or wars. 

If we get a disaster or get attacked, of course we should respond, but we should pay for it and actually put the money down up front, so it's there exactly when we need it. Instead of cutting something or raising taxes later on. This is what I'm for in dealing with disaster relief, set up a national emergency management system to replace FEMA, as well as whatever disaster insurance programs, Flood Insurance being an example of that. 

This Natural Emergency Management System (or NEMS) would be a cooperative between Federal, state and local government's, as well as the private sector. The Federal Government would just regulate this system, not manage it. The states and locals would manage it, the part of it thats in their jurisdiction. So when they get hit by a disaster, they would then have the resources at their disposal to respond to it, instead of coming to the Administration or Congress for the money. And then they would contract out to let's say non-profit community services to do the work of the disaster cleanup that they would also regulate. 

I would pay for this with like I said two tax increases and then like I said I would cut taxes and spending somewhere else so this is deficit-neutral. It would probably actually save the Federal Government money in the future, because they would have one less agency that they would have to administer. 

These two tax increases would be a property taxes on all homes and places of employment to fund the disaster cleanup, that anyone who owns or rents these property's would pay into. And they would pay the tax based on how much the property is worth and much they are at risk to disaster. 

And then a payroll tax to cover disaster insurance that people and organizations would be able to decide for themselves from who they pay for their disaster insurance with a non-profit public option thats run independent of government being in each state as well. Again that tax would be assigned based on worth and risk. 

We are past the days hopefully for good that we can afford borrow and spend economics. The Bush Administration left office two in a half years ago. And it's been time we put that fiscal policy to bed and never wake it up again. We have an economy of over 14T$ and can more than afford to pay for things like disaster relief without borrowing the money to do it.