Harvey’s
Victims To Be Victims Again
The recent devastation in the Texas area from Hurricane Harvey has proven
one thing... that we haven’t learned a damn thing since Hurricane Katrina hit
twelve years ago!
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast back in 2005, it brought a huge
storm surge as it came ashore, dumping not just rain but also ocean water well
into the Louisiana state. And while most
of the focus was on the failure of the levees in New Orleans and the damage
caused by that, it wasn’t the only place damaged by the storm.
What made matters worse for homeowners was the realization that all of
the money that they pumped into their homes, all of the money they spent on
insurance to cover their homes from just such an emergency, all of that was
washed away with the storm surge thanks to greedy and miserly insurance
companies. And it was done in such an
underhanded way that would make even the worst comic book villain jealous.
If homeowners had flood protection, then the insurance companies claimed
the damage was from the wind and therefore not covered. If they did not have flood protection, then the
insurance companies claimed the damage was from flooding instead of wind and
therefore not covered. Either way, tens
of thousands of homeowners were denied help because of the duplicitous and
miserly sadism of greedy insurance companies.
Sure they got some help, but not from the entities that should have
owned up to their obligations in the first place.
Okay, so that was then. And there
were a lot of things that went wrong at the time that needed to be
addressed. Certain political figures
made stupid decisions that they needed to own up to and fix. And you would think that one of those issues
that would corrected would be the callous corporate greed involving homeowners
insurance and what would be considered “wind damage” and what would be
considered “flood damage”. You would
think that budget-conscious GOP conservatives and neo-conservatives would want
to make sure they aren’t in the position to bail people out again after being
screwed over by Big Insurance. After
all, they needed that money for their endless wars.
But that’s just not how the GOP rolls.
Sure enough when Superstorm Sandy came rolling through New York and New
Jersey, nothing really was fixed. Big
Insurance was still being the miserly, greedy, sadistic, screwjob selves and
relying on Big Government to help those they screwed over. Worse yet, several members of the GOP
actually voted against giving relief to those devastated by that
not-really-a-hurricane storm. And can
you guess where most of them came from?
Right, the very state of Texas that today needs help from Hurricane
Harvey!
That’s right, folks, the State of Texas - whose politicians opposed
helping New York and New Jersey storm victims in 2012 - are now hurting. They got screwed over by Hurricane Harvey,
and they’re
about to get screwed over again by the same miserly, greedy, sadistic,
screwjob insurance companies.
And the truly insulting part is... it should not have to be this way!
Let’s get brutally honest here... these miserly, greedy, sadistic,
screwjob insurance company bastards need to be held to what they were obligated
to cover. They were paid money to
provide a service should the situation arise.
A hurricane and the damage that comes with it counts as a
“situation”. It does not matter if it is
the rain that comes from the hurricane or the wind from that hurricane or the
storm surge that was blown in by that hurricane; it is all part of that same
storm, it is that simple!
And it really can be that simple.
All it takes is either some simple legislation or a simple judicial
decision that says storm damage is both wind and water and that Big Insurance
cannot nitpick the difference.
But unfortunately it’s never going to be that simple, because Big
Insurance companies influence the regulators that watch over them, and they buy
the legislators and literally write the legislation for them, and they force
judges to go along with their fine print separation of wind and water. They write the rules that they can use to
screw over the American people and continue to take their money. “Simple” is a profane word in their
greed-driven vocabulary. “Simple” keeps
them from the money that they believe they are “entitled” to.
“Simple” also explains what they are doing in situations like this. If they promise to provide a service in
exchange for money and they’ve been taking money all this time on that promise,
and then something happens and they refuse to follow through on what they
promise, then the simple word to describe it is “fraud”.
Think about this for a moment: if Big Insurance actually did pay out what
they owed the people affected by Hurricane Harvey, then it would mean less
money that the state and federal governments would have to generate to bail
those areas out. How many of you
supposed “deficit-conscious” conservatives would be opposed to that? It also means that the people wouldn’t have
to take out a government-backed mortgage on top of their current mortgage at a
time when our true economy is still pretty stagnant, which is less money that
can be put back into that economy.
Wouldn’t that be a good thing too?
Like most people, I don’t have a problem with the idea of insurance; but
it comes with the caveat that it will do what it is designed to do, which is
provide a safety net in the event of some emergency. That’s what you see in all their
advertisements. They continually promise
to be there for you in those times; to have your back when you need it. But if they can’t be trusted, what good is it
to give them money for a service they won’t provide? Worse yet, why should we then be obligated to
pay for that service through legislation and regulation? Because the other “simple” word to describe
that kind of action that nobody wants to hear… is “extortion”. And, no, having it done by the government
still does not make it “okay”.
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