Chris Christie And Disaster Relief

     Last week when Governor Chris Christie threw a hissy fit because Congress wasn't dolling out taxpayer dollars fast enough for Super Storm Sandy relief, I was reminded how recently it was that some in the Conservative movement endorsed him to be our nominee in this past election. No less than Conservative maven, Ann Coulter, was giddy as a school girl with the prospect that Mr. Christie would enter the race and save us all from the likes of Mitt Romney and Rick Santorium. I think it was a sign of some Republicants dissatisfaction with the group of prospective Presidential candidates that they were fielding, but it was also evidence of the blinders that were in no short supply when it came to Governor Christie.
     It was shockingly apparent that Chris Christie leaned a little left on the social issues, while he used his fiscal Conservatism to spellbound Conservatives like Ms. Coulter. I was never a member of the Chris Christie fan club, for reasons that have become painfully obvious since just before the election. First there was his embarrassing slobbering over President Obama in the wake of Super Storm Sandy. His reaction to the President simply showing up for a photo opportunity days before an election, was completely unwarranted. And last week Governor Christie once again showed not only his leftist leanings on social issues, but his abandonment of his fiscal Conservatism by demanding taxpayer dollars for his state from an almost bankrupt Federal government.
     I have never understood how so-called Conservative governors and politicians can simply choose to ignore their Conservative principles to stroke their constituents by syphoning Federal tax dollars to their states. Disaster relief should be managed and paid for on the local and state level. If taxpayers from other parts of the country wish to contribute, they should have the choice to do so without being compelled by the Federal government. Federal monies should be used for those things that affect the entire country, like national defense, not local and states issues. This was the original intent of the founders and it makes fiscal sense. As we have seen with the Sandy relief bill in Congress, when you allow the Federal government to provide disaster relief, you also get payoffs to special interests. At the very time that our country delayed a fiscal cliff and are heading for another, Congress appropriates billions of dollars in pork disguised as disaster relief.
     The damage from Super Storm Sandy was tremendous and devastating for those who lost so much. That being said, wasn't most of the damaged property insured, either by commercial insurers or government flood insurance? If the damage was insured by the government program, why does the Federal government have to raid taxpayer dollars to pay out claims made against an insurance program into which people paid premiums? Why are the taxpayers insuring property that lies in areas so risky that commercial insurers refuse to cover them? What happened to the premiums that the government received from their policy-holders? Is the Federal government not bound by the same rules as the rest of the insurance industry that they regulate when they get into the insurance business themselves?
     These are the questions that Conservatives must ask and must educate the voting public to ask of their leaders. Conservatism is based on Constitutional principles and not simply a campaigning ploy to get votes from that segment of the population that still believes in those principles. Sadly, Mr. Christie's Conservatism is only something he wishes to exhibit when the skies are sunny and life is easy.

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