After Warren county flooded a couple of weeks ago, 1,300 people were displaced in Garrett's district, and he belatedly said he would ask President Bush to declare a disaster area. Meanwhile, Garrett raised money with his buddy, Extremist Dick Cheney (aka Darth Vader), and then went to go see the damage. I wrote about this two weeks ago, warning that Scott Garrett's uncaring vote against aid for Hurricane Katrina victimes was a precursor to his lack of compassion for his own constituents. I thought I was exaggerating. But Scott Garrett did the unexpected.
Scott Garrett proposed an amendment to the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2006 that would increase flood insurance rates for homeowners:
An amendment to a law approved last week by the U.S. House of Representatives would impose much higher rates for federal flood insurance on anyone buying an older house in an area subject to flooding.According to FEMA, rates would double in the near-term and triple in the long-term. The House voted on this bill on June 27th, days after the flooding hit Western New Jersey. Garrett offered no amendment to change the law even after he was aware of the damage done to his constituency. He voted for the bill. And furthermore, he defended his reactionary amendment:
"Homeowners know how vulnerable their property is when they purchase it, so Congress is updating the law," said Garrett, a fiscal conservative. He argued that when the subsidies were approved in 1968, few home buyers knew where flood zones were. "My amendment simply recognizes this new reality."Garrett's bill's "new reality" doesn't "recognize" the fact that homeowners who just had their homes destroyed may decide to move to new homes in their towns. Unfortunately, their insurance rates will be double what they were from their old house. But to hell with people! And I thought Garrett was against taxing people more. Flood insurance is run by the federal government and these increased rates amount to essentially higher taxes on homeowners.
But that's ok! Garrett has voted for pay raises for himself four times in a row! So at least we know where our higher insurance rates are going!
Scott Garrett is sick! The formulation in his head must be "constituents hurting, must make them hurt more!"
We've got to give him the boot.
Contribute and volunteer for Paul Aronsohn. Also write a letter to the editor in your area about this, we need to make people aware of Garrett's sinister moves. Here are the letter to the editor pages at the Bergen Record. For those of you in Warren, make sure this gets into the local papers out there, people need to know!
2 comments:
Adam- don't forget the fact that those people who already own homes in these areas will be punished in the form of lower home prices. If flood insurance is more expensive, buyers will take that into account when the consider these homes. (If I understand the legislation correctly, it applies to buyers.) So not only has Ernie decided to increase insurance rates (what a surprise), but he's also decided to punish people who are selling their homes (in an increasingly difficult home market).
you're so right, sorry i overlooked that, but this is just wrong, punishing flood victims, his own constituents, garrett's just gone too far
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