The political storm surge

The Superstorm has started a raging online fight over whose side this helps – the big government types or the small government types.

It’s the philosophy Mitt Romney expressed two years ago:

“Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction,” Romney said.

That’s versus Obama handing out his phone number:

“I told the mayors and the governors they can call me personally at the White House,” Obama said in a press briefing.

The Wall Street Journal Wednesday came to Mr. Romney’s defense, pointing out he was not saying abolish FEMA back in 2011, he was just saying the states themselves should take more responsibility for disaster relief.

And in fact it’s the local county executive, the local mayor, the state’s governor touring the damage and making decisions.

But red states and blue states alike still demand that the federal government write the check. They could tax their own people; pay for this stuff on their own, but they don’t.

So what’s to debate?

It’s obvious that no one wants to drown government in the bathtub, or I guess the subway would be the new analogy.

The Red Cross is not going to rebuild the Jersey shore, that’s going to be the Army Corps of Engineers.

And people will say, “well, this is an exception.” But as climatologists have noted, these exceptions are coming every year now. And when you profess a small government “go-it-alone” philosophy, but then every time there’s a super storm – and there seem to be more of them these days – you accept big government help, it’s called denial.

Yes I know. “What Superstorms? This is normal.” I rest my case.