chewd: Looks like a red state problem.

United we stood.

I'm with you on this one.  Maybe if we withhold help from red states during disasters for a bit we'll get some permanent disaster relief fund that won't be mired in politics.  The people who withhold money from blue states won't care until it hits them where it counts - their pocket (or their votes, which they use to fill their pockets).

Of course, a lot of those people are idiots so it might not work and just lead to people suffering for no reason, but we only need enough to get something like that passed.

I'd suggest making bills to start such a program immediately and repeatedly and voting against all specific disaster relief and just let the new legislation handle it.  That would minimize the problems (though still fark over a lot of people, but far less in the long term).

Of course, stupidity might prevail, but there's little choice in the matter unless we want the same thing to happen again in the future in even larger populated areas.