Morning, it’s Friday 🚀
$750.. and it’s suggested you apply for it ONLINE, when much of the area is without power. Let’s just take that one house in shot behind her, could you even fix that for $750? So as you’d expect there’s a lot of people like the person posting this who draw comparison between the financial assistance being given to US citizens affected in this disaster and financial support given to foreign nations and foreign nationals who have recently immigrated to the US. This is fair comparison to make as it goes directly to the core of the issue, which is priorities. If you as a government have a finite pot of money (let’s pretend the money printer doesn’t exist) that you have because you have taken it from your citizens at threat of violence (you should never forget that) on the promise that you will use it on behalf of them as their elected representatives and in their best interests, then wherever you choose to allocate those funds displays for all to see what you prioritise. In 2024 alone Ukraine has received at least $38 billion and at least $288 billion since 2022. Israel in 2024 have received at least $40 billion - to be honest if you want those numbers completely accurate then that’s a long dig and you still won’t find sources that aren’t full of grey areas and obfuscations, suffice to say there is plenty of money to be spent on the government’s priorities. It’s the same when I tried to find accurate budget numbers for FEMA, the agency now dealing with this response to Hurricane Helene. But the closest I could get was $30 billion and even then, that was TOTAL budget to be spent nationwide this year, not just on one disaster response, which in 2024 was around $4 billion. When it comes to foreign nationals settling in the US, with the focus on the Haitians in Ohio as you’d expect with that being in the news recently, there are all sorts of numbers flying around about regular payments and benefits they receive. This ranges from $2500 to $10000 - it’s the internet, people are mental. However, I had a look into this and it seems that as a foreign national they do in fact receive funds through something called the Reception and Placement program. Here for the first 3 months they receive $1200 each month, followed by $600 for the remaining 9 months. They are also often given food and rent vouchers and access to other funding via local NGO’s. So in total over that 12 month period these non-citizens will receive at least $9000, which averaged a month is… $750.