How About the FEMA Clawbackers? MMM 5-23-2011

HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE FEMA ENFORCERS?

Monday Morning Message, May 23, 2011

The cleanup goes on in many parts of our country as storms continue to cause many to try to recover from both loss of life and property damage and even the loss of entire homes.  While stories abound from those in need of help, a story came out recently that caught my attention that dates back to the floods that hit Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2008.  During that distress, many were unable to find shelter except for the help of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) who provided both trailers for temporary shelter and funds for rebuilding.  Many people benefited from this effort but it seems that some needy people were not supposed to get any help.

Fast forward to March of 2011, and it appears that FEMA was not supposed to help many of these people and so they have decided to do a claw back of disaster aid.  That’s right, a program that actually helped people who needed it, gave them some of their life back by getting them back on their feet, now wants to have their money back because FEMA made a mistake.  On top of that, they sent letters to all of these people demanding the money back in just thirty days.  The irony is that FEMA was handing out money to ineligible people who actually were in need and in fact used the money productively. 

With all of the shareholder meetings coming up I am sending out an appeal letter to all of my friends to find out the names of these FEMA guys because I have a higher calling for them.  When I get my proxies this year from all the Banking & Wall Street Companies who paid big bonuses to their executives back in 2006 thru 2008 for all the profits from packaged mortgages, I want to nominate these guys to do a little claw back work that might really be justified.  In fact these FEMA claw backers can go for some big money like $20 million instead of $20,000 from someone who had all their possessions wiped out by floods.  I want them to be on the boards of my companies, not the same old names who bounce around from one board to the next just to cozy up to management for an extra $250,000 annually to sit in on four or five meetings and rubber stamp things.   If you are in doubt about who to vote for on the company boards that might benefit from a little enforcement action, just write in “FEMA Clawbackers”!

For all of you who have contacts at the Securities & Exchange Commission, it would also make sense for us to send the SEC enforcement division over to this same FEMA unit.  Just imagine a few weeks on the job taking back money from people who really needed it and who rightfully benefited from a government program, and it should be no time at all until those SEC “enforcers” learn how to do this from people who DON’T deserve the money they got!  This kind of cross training just might have some serious potential! 

I Corinthians 1:27-28 (RSV) “...but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.  God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are…”