By John Loftus, Daily Caller News Foundation | January 14, 2025
President Joe Biden is doing some Californians dirty by offering them a pittance check in response to the historic wildfires. So far, the devastating Los Angeles fires have claimed at least 24 lives, razed 12,000 homes and structures, and scorched 60 square miles in the Southern California city. In some areas, it has gotten so bad that residents who can afford it are hiring private firefighters. Although Biden said the federal government would cover 100% of the initial disaster response, he now has a direct offer for individual fire victims: a whopping $770 check.
“We are not waiting until the fires are over to help victims,” the president explained Monday, “We are helping them all right now. People impacted by these fires are going to receive a one-time payment of $770, so they can quickly purchase things like water, baby formula, prescriptions.”
Biden has promised the federal government will fund the initial cleanup efforts, salaries for first responders, and temporary shelters for 180 days — the bare minimum. But for the individual victims, a $770 stimulus check? According to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell, approximately 33,000 people have so far requested federal assistance. 6,000 of those applications have been approved, with over $5 million paid out, Fox News reported.
You have a family of five. Your house is a pile of smoldering ash. You’ve been looted. Your local government is a failed state and too incompetent to manage a disaster of this scope. Too bad, Jack. $770. One-time payment. In California, that might cover a week’s worth of living costs, if that. For Biden, though, it’s plenty. If anything, it’s a magnanimous gesture.
Meanwhile, for a country and people halfway across the globe, Uncle Sam is always willing to open up his wallet or write a blank check.
As the fires raged in Los Angeles, the Biden administration forked over nearly $500 million worth of aid Thursday to keep the meat grinder in Ukraine a well-oiled death machine. By the end of 2024, the administration had handed out $61.4 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, which doesn’t even factor in all the other forms of aid — that total comes out to $175 billion.
Billions for Ukraine to fund a brutal war that has no end in sight. 770 dollars for individual victims of an historic natural disaster.
Sure, the federal government is going to pay for the damage in Los Angeles for 180 days — at least that’s what they say. But if the swamp hadn’t given blank checks to foreign countries to fund their foreign wars, maybe those stimulus checks for the fire victims could have been a little more than a pittance.
John Loftus is editor at large at the Daily Caller News Foundation
Original article link
