Hey – I’m a student of history so I’ll respond. You have unconsciously identified the whole problem with the libertarian position. Simply put, libertarians believe in magic. They believe that it is somehow possible to create a massive governmental system that will only “spring into action” if certain preconditions are met. Yet this is preposterous. Politicians will always promise voters “more” and they will authorize said massive government to do “more” even when supposedly rigid preconditions don’t exist. Agencies like FEMA, Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture and you-name-it don’t just sit there lurking in the Batcave waiting for Commissioner Gordon to put up the Bat-signal. They justify their existence and budgets through “mission creep” authorized by Congress. And that requires that they “be active” even when emergencies do not exist. Such activity costs money.
C. Northote Parkinson wryly observed….”In politics people give you what they think you deserve and deny you what they think you want.” Todays political class (which sadly includes many Republicans) believe that the people “deserve more” of whatever happens to be on offer. In the case of disaster relief the government position has evolved from simply providing emergency food, shelter and medical care (as in, for example, the Army’s resoponse to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake) to taking on the entire responsiblity for “rebuilding” a community following a disaster. All of the agencies, bureaus and departments necessary for such a rebuilding remain with us always and are constantly exapanding their reach whether a disaster threatens or not. Put another way, once the genie is out of the bottle you can’t put him back in. That might seem harsh but with our entire economy threatening to be sucked into the black hole of government debt it is something that has to be recognized and dealt with.
