Bible-believing Christians know the wages of sin is death, but the Bible is unclear on the wages of incompetence. One indication that incompetence tends to be expensive comes from the Associated Press.
AP reports the cost of incompetence in California is in the neighborhood of $306 million.
That’s the amount of the request for reimbursement that was denied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. California submitted the request to help pay for repairs to the Oroville Dam — which boasts the tallest spillway in the history of the United States — which almost failed during heavy winter rains last year.
The request was denied because it seems the Oroville Dam also features the tallest spillway in the nation that had a faulty design from the get-go. For more detail on the past parade of incompetence as related in this column you can click here, here, and here.
As this is written California paper-pushers have requested $639 million from FEMA to help rebuild the dam with $333 million already approved and sent. According to federal share-the-tax-dollars law California can request up to 75 percent of the cost to rebuild a dam that benefits no one but Californians.
Taxpayers in other regions of the country cannot be faulted for thinking why should their money be used to bail out a wealthy, blue, high-tax, low-humility state like California? It’s an excellent question. Why can’t California take some of the millions wasted on fighting “global warming” and apply the money to fixing a real world, right now problem?
According to the AP, Republican Cong. Doug LaMalfa agrees, and blames state bureaucrats for “spending money on other things, such as a high-speed rail project, over ‘fixing known deficiencies at the dam.’”
The official reason the feds rejected the request was because the dam was damaged before the rain came, but no one bothered to check during the drought. FEMA spokesman Brandi Richard explained, “Two separate independent engineering reviews indicate that a variety of problems existed at the dam prior to the February 2017 floods. FEMA’s Public Assistance can only fund work directly linked to the declared disaster.”
It all comes down to the sad fact that for politicians it’s not worth spending money if you don’t get credit. No media outlet is going to cover a ceremony to mark routine maintenance and repairs on a spillway, unless the politicians careen down it in a barrel.
But a bullet train ground-breaking! Now that generates news coverage, even if months later the money is wasted and the train never leaves the station.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.