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President Obama promises swift action by the federal government and specifically by FEMA. Obama called it a “a serious and big storm.” Obama promised to “to respond big and respond fast.”
President Obama has been in touch with the governors of the potentially impacted states, as well as the mayors of some of the mayors of the major cities in the region. He has also been in touch with regional officials of FEMA as well.
President Obama emphasized that “my main message to everybody involved is that we have to take this seriously. The federal government is working effectively with the state and local governments. It’s going to be very important that populations in all the impacted states take this seriously, listen to your state and local elected officials.”
Obama also promised that federal action will be swift and said that his message to governors and mayors in the impacted areas is that “we’re going to cut through red tape. We’re not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules.”
Video: President Obama promises FEMA’s response to Hurricane Sandy to be ‘big and fast’
Meanwhile, Romney/Ryan would slash Federal Disaster Funding and have states – or the private sector – responsible as first responders. From a CNN interview last spring:
“Absolutely,” he said. “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. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?”
“Including disaster relief, though?” debate moderator John King asked Romney.
“We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids,” Romney replied. “It is simply immoral……
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