Anderson Cooper, Ron Paul Spar About FEMA (VIDEO)

Anderson Cooper sparred with Congressman Ron Paul about the role of the federal government in disaster relief.

Paul caused a stir last week when he dismissed FEMA as an unnecessary agency that was not needed to help citizens in the wake of natural disasters like Hurricane Irene. On Tuesday, a clearly skeptical Cooper challenged Paul about his views.

"You say we don't need FEMA," Cooper began. "Why?"

"They don't have a very good record," Paul responded. "...Thorough bureaucracy as a whole, don't do a very good job but FEMA has the worst reputation of almost any of them." He said that the government should "look at how things were handled before we had FEMA."

Cooper responded that FEMA had, despite its many failures, still managed to outperform local officials in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina. "If you had left everything up to Louisiana officials during Katrina, probably more people would have died," he said.

"Well, that remains to be seen," Paul said. He then said that FEMA created complacency and dependence in people who took reckless chances with their homes because they knew FEMA would come to help them.

"Go and show me where there was a much worse care before FEMA and I don't think you can give me any of those indications," he said. Cooper pointed out that, before FEMA, the 1900 hurricane in Galveston -- in Paul's Congressional district -- killed 6,000 people (it is still the deadliest hurricane in American history) because the local populace could not afford to pay for a sea wall.

"If FEMA were abolished, wouldn't you be setting the stage for life or death conditions in poor areas of the country?" he asked.

"No," Paul said. "...They survived without FEMA and they did rebuild the city and it was mostly local funds. Probably some state funds. The two then began talking over each other.

"You're saying there is no role the federal government should play," Cooper said. "Let me, let me, let me, let me finish!" Paul responded. He said that the government did have a role to play in performing rescue operations.

"It's endless," he said. "The government will take care of us and we're broke and we're in the midst of this economic crisis which will get a lot worse and not be concerned about it."

Comments

[TallMarc]

05:34 PM on 09/25/2011

What about GWB...Brownie you're doing a great job! We go from Katrina to beach houses? LOL. Thanks Ron Paul for your facts. LOL.

[gobizduck]

05:50 AM on 09/03/2011

Everybody was up in arms when Bush was in, calling him a murderer. Now that Obama has expanded the murder by increasing drone attacks it's OK.

There is no moral high ground here, phonies, just like the GOP war machine.

[gobizduck]

05:43 AM on 09/03/2011

It is a national disgrace to see people on the right and left, both overlook murder for oil. I am sick of posts that have the underlying theme of MY MONEY, MY MONEY, MY MONEY.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, some little kid just had her arms blown off by a drone missile.

Ron Paul is getting ALL the votes of my friends and family. At least he has the decency to do the Christian thing.

[Francois Bergeron]

08:49 AM on 09/05/2011

I get it. I understand that you can be upset by the ongoing wars, but if your argument is that we are causing harm by saving people in Libya, which was a successful coordinated campaign, then I don't get you. We saved lives there. However, Iraq and afghanistan should be stopped.
Also, Ron Paul is an ok person, seems honest and direct, but he simply will never get anything past congress. His ideas are antiquated. You can't go backwards.
Chopping up the fed gvt, saying that gvt is too big, was used as a political ploy on Andrew Jackson by Calhoun. It's not a new thing. And it's silly.

[gobizduck]

09:44 AM on 09/05/2011

I understand now that the rebels are known al-Qaeda leaders...great, now they have billions in oil reserves to do with what they want, including causing trouble for us.

That makes Ron Paul more right now than ever "stay out of entangling alliances with other countries'. Now look at what we've created...a real mess, this time the bad guys have billions to spend.

I don't even agree with him on everything, but no one can be all things to all people. I know he's honest and that makes me sleep better at night.

[ronjohnjr4019]

10:07 PM on 09/11/2011

Libya was a regional dispute we should have kept our hands out of it. The only other place we should protect besides us in Israel because God blesses those that bless Israel.

[gobizduck]

05:37 AM on 09/03/2011

Paulites, I wouldn't try to convince anyone here about Ron Paul. The Dems are blood-thirsty murderers, just like the GOP. The neo-cons and the neo-dems are the same thing...hooray for me and screw you mentality.

[Francois Bergeron]

08:50 AM on 09/05/2011

You forget that we voted for Obama hoping that he would stop the wars. It appears to be more difficult than he had thought.

[gobizduck]

09:51 AM on 09/05/2011

None of us really know the forces against a President when it comes to war. There are definitely forces within the government committed to expanding it all, but they stay stealth. Difficult to change for sure.

[goodmarina]

03:39 AM on 09/03/2011

I must share a quote one of my friends made about Ron Paul's brand of Libertarianism -- which I believe is spot on!

"My libertarian friends all move the goalposts when you start trying to define them. The joke is a libertarian is a Republican who wants a personal right to smoke all the dope he wants too. And that was the hook for a lot of people. Once baited they've been switched to the usual hyper-patriotism, neo-fascist social beliefs (law and order) and corporatist laissez faire. This slipped out in the recent debate when one of them remarked that "corporations are people too" and nobody, including Ron Paul, challenged them."

[gobizduck]

05:45 AM on 09/03/2011

Let's go with you plan and murder more brown children.

[marinfan]

10:28 AM on 09/03/2011

From progressive internet rag ThinkProgress:
"Ron Paul Breaks With Mitt Romney: ‘People Are Individuals…Not Companies"
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/15/295646/ron-paul-mitt-romney-corporations-people/
(link with video proof included)

Well?

[Geisha]

07:00 PM on 09/03/2011

Marinfan--I tried to post the link to the youtube video last night but HuffPost wouldn't allow me...thanks for getting through.

[FL TallMan]

12:06 AM on 09/03/2011

Yeah, there we go with that "we're broke" radicalism again. If the country is SO broke, why not create fairness among the taxes paid (or not paid) by corporations and the wealthy?

[Pdubya]

12:20 PM on 09/04/2011

we could tax everyone 50% and still wouldn't dent our debt. its about our monetary policy, fiat currency, and centralized banking.

[Francois Bergeron]

08:51 AM on 09/05/2011

Yeah, right. So let's not bother with taxing people then. I'm so tired of that silly argument.

[moslef]

11:01 PM on 09/02/2011

"The girl who goes and gets an abortion, she's a participant in it, I don't think she deserves the death penalty, but there are some abortionists that it wouldn't be very hard to give them a pretty harsh punishment."
-Ron Paul

[rustybeavis]

11:12 PM on 09/02/2011

First, pull the whole quote.

He said right after that "because, you know, nothing annoys me more than the fact that an abortionist can make money killing a live viable fetus, in the 3rd trimester, and they think nothing about it, and they make a living doing this. Any yet, one minute after birth, that same mother, who might throw the child away, rightfully is called to task, and actually charged with murder. So that inconsistency has to be resolved."

Second, he has said repeatedly that his personal beliefs are one thing, but his political beliefs are to leave it to the states, localities, churches, and families.

So even though he is vehemently pro-life (an area where I, as a lot of RP supporters, differ from him), he is principled enough to realize as President, it's not within his authority to make nation-wide laws governing it.

[goodmarina]

03:40 AM on 09/03/2011

for a man that  believes that the Federal government has no business intruding in our lives ... Ron Paul has no trouble saying that the State governments should legislative laws (including reproductive laws).

isn't GOVERNMENT ... government -- regardless of whether it is the invisible hand of the Federal or State government?

what a fraud Ron Paul is!

[Sad But True]

10:24 PM on 09/02/2011

Ron Paul is a racist, regressive joke. A couple of intriguing ideals do not a real candidate make.

Of all the far-right zealots currently turning campaigning into a circus side-show, he has the most hysterically resistant view of evolution...and that's saying something.

No thanks, Ronny. Leave the Old West where it belongs -- in history.

[rustybeavis]

11:01 PM on 09/02/2011

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

Sounds about right.

What do you propose instead? More government? More agencies? More bureaucracy?

[sfkjeld]

07:14 AM on 09/03/2011

Let's start with more fairness. The only countries that have no social safety net are in the third world. Why shouldn't it be a national right for a woman to have a choice? Why shouldn't it be a national right that an African American can eat any ANY lunchroom in the country? Why shouldn't it be a national right that no public school can force a child to pray in school? Should people have a right to carry concealed weapons and own automatic assault weapons? Grenade launchers maybe? Shouldn't those weapons be registered like our automobiles are? Isn't that fair?

[Geisha]

05:30 AM on 09/03/2011

It's interesting that somebody who is consistently supportive of individual rights can be branded as a "racist".

[sfkjeld]

07:18 AM on 09/03/2011

Iike most RP supporters, you do not know much about this guy.

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/angry-white-man

[Lisa Miles]

09:21 PM on 09/02/2011

I thought this was interesting....I'm voting for Ron Paul in 2012 because he will bring the troops home and we can stop bankrolling these military conflicts....look at what we're spending....and THINK of how this money could be better spent....

From the NYTimes
“Hurricane Irene will most likely prove to be one of the 10 costliest catastrophes in the nation’s history… Industry estimates put the cost of the storm at $7 billion to $10 billion…”

Yet, what Irene might cost in its totality is what the United States spends in one month on our war efforts, particularly in Afghanistan.

According to Defense Department figures, by the end of April the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan… had cost an average of $9.7 billion a month, with roughly two-thirds going to Afghanistan.

[Sad But True]

10:27 PM on 09/02/2011

By the way, what difference does the cost of war make when talking about FEMA -- a government body that Paul wants to abolish?

[Geisha]

05:32 AM on 09/03/2011

That money could be granted to the individual states to organize their own disaster relief, according to their needs? Merely asking...

[Mas]

06:57 PM on 09/02/2011

The people working at FEMA does a very good job, the situations they deal with is of a large scale not small brush fire issues, but flooded out areas, with communities that covers a large part of the state or across state lines. They are not called to provide feel good moments, but to coordinate a wide range of activities and ensure people have water and not at the mercy of someone who would take advantage of the situation and used the old "supply and demand" line for the reason why they are over charging.

[CaroleK1970]

12:52 PM on 09/02/2011

Roan Pawl is a disaster and he needs FEMA

[DRaymond]

12:48 PM on 09/02/2011

"No," Paul said. "...They survived without FEMA and they did rebuild the city and it was mostly local funds. Probably some state funds. The two then began talking over each other.

Well, all but 6,000 of them did.

[handsomeinnc]

12:11 PM on 09/02/2011

Republicans and Libertarians: If you are poor, sick, weak, just die.
When people like Ron Paul keep getting re-elected ... it shows how informed Americans are about what this man stands for.

[edwcorey]

01:15 PM on 09/02/2011

They are both right, in their way. The idea of FEMA is good, but the execution generally sucks. Every agency becomes politicized, and cronies and under-the-table payers get to rip off taxpayers just as war contractors do. These contractors are not concerned about effectiveness; they are concerned about maximizing their take. And they generally do not have to suffer for their treasonous theft. In fact, they get new government contracts. It's no coincidence that, with the use of private contractors and a so-called professional military, our longest, most expensive, and most scandalous wars are being waged now.

[wick786]

10:57 AM on 09/02/2011

I live in Houston, Texas, down the road from Galveston. Galveston was a major port and one of the most important cities in Texas before the storm of 1900. Ron Paul says the city recovered. I beg to disagree. In over 100 years it has never fully come back. It now relies mostly on tourism, a far, far cry from its grander days.

[Geisha]

05:35 AM on 09/03/2011

It must have been replaced over time with a more favorable port. As you're from that region, what are your thoughts on this?

[kmweav]

08:22 AM on 09/02/2011

"You apparently haven't been keeping up on the news because we are broke. There is not enough space here to explain in detail the debt situation of the U.S. Simply put the country is spending more than what it brings in." Marvin Cooley

...not broke enough to fight two wars, tax cuts to 33% of corporatio­ns, extending Bush era tax cuts to the millionair­es and billionair­es and allow China to tax American goods at 25% while we tax theirs at 2%. Marvin Cooley is a LOW-INFORM­ATION-VOTE­R. KMWEAV

[Grousefeather]

10:24 AM on 09/02/2011

We ARE NOT BROKE! Our national wealth has been stolen by the political-corporate class who are hoarding it in foreign bank accounts.

[Lisa Miles]

08:27 PM on 09/02/2011

If you don't like the wars and you don't like special treatment for corporations and special interests then you'd better be voting for Ron Paul in 2012 because these items are the cornerstone of his candidacy.

Bush started this mess and nothing has changed with Obama in office. Same wars. Same tax cuts for the wealthy. A federal debt that went up by $4 trillion in Bush's 8 years in office has now gone up $4 trillion in Obama's 3 years in office alone. And yet I'm hearing NOTHING new, NOTHING different from any other candidate out there. As far as I'm concerned Obama, Perry, Romney, Bachmann et al may all be the same person.

[1378jason]

11:13 PM on 09/03/2011

Yes, I agree Ron Paul appears to be the smart choice.