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Disasters Become Big Chunk of U.S. Deficit

Eleven disasters in 2018 that cost $1B or more — the year is not over!

Most of the disaster costs are not covered by the regular budget. Instead, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has to go back to Congress and get a supplemental appropriation — that is, directly financed by adding it to the national debt. 

This is the same budget strategy that the GW Bush administration used to pay for our two wars. The trillion or more dollars spent were never in the budget. We just borrowed the money to fight the wars. There were no "war bond drives" and no sacrifice by anyone. The sacrifice will come in the years ahead when the economic house of cards that is the federal deficit collapses.     

Check out the numbers at Disasters become big chunk of U.S. deficit.

Remember also, the tax bill passed by Congress last year was not tax reform. It was a tax cut! Another trillion dollars in debt over the next 10 years.

Claire Rubin shared another distressing news item above.  

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.