As the cost of the devastation wrecked by the hurricane in Louisiana and other Southern states keeps escalating, the question is raised: who should foot the bill for the damage? Jack Chambless, Economics Professor at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida, answered the question unequivocally: Not the federal government. Chambless stated that “not one taxpayer dollar should go toward rebuilding the city of New Orleans.” Invoking the U.S. Constitution, Chambless argued:
[W]e have every obligation to provide for New Orleans in terms of charity, private charity from one person to the other. But the founding fathers never intended, Article One, section Eight of the Constitution, never intended to provide one dollar of taxpayer dollars to pay for any disaster or anything that we might call charity.
(For reference, article One, section Eight of the Constituion states: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States.”)
Chambless concluded by making a case for the free market: “Between charity and between people making rational decisions about where they would like to live and buying insurance if they can afford it, you will still have people living in these areas.”
Read the entire transcript.
Chambless was a guest at the Fox News show “The World with Neil Cavuto” on Tuesday, Sept 30. The show’s host, Neil Cavuto, asked another question in his daily column. He wondered where was the international relief aid provided for disasters around the globe: “When this kind of stuff happens to other folks, we’re there. When this kind of stuff happens to us, who’s here?”
Update: House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) announced that: “It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that’s seven feet under sea level.”