Pee on My Leg and Say It's Rainin': Big Insurance Shillin' for Flood "Reform"

Welp folks, this Cowboy has been tellin' anyone who'd listen that them insurance companies are a bunch of fancy crooks stealing from the common man many ways. This Cowboy run across one of them scams yesterday. Ole big business Bush and insurance waterboy Chris Dodd want to do us a "favor" and "fix" the flood program. All this Cowboy can say is when these big business lackeys want to fix somethin' you best hold on to yer wallets boys 'cause the fixin' is in all right. Against the people!

Lets look at the "favor" ole Dodd wants to give us.

Awash in debt, U.S. flood insurance under scrutiny

Tue Jan 29, 2008 1:47pm EST
By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Swimming in red ink and scheduled to expire within months if not renewed, the troubled National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is about to encounter another round of criticism this week on Capitol Hill.

Congressional investigators are expected to call for closer scrutiny of how insurers handle homeowners' damage claims from storms in which both wind and water play a destructive role, as they did in the hurricanes of 2005, said sources familiar with the preparation of a report set for release within days.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report is expected to focus especially on insurers that sell both wind and flood policies to the same homeowner, a situation the GAO previously has said poses a potential conflict of interest.......

This is where it gets good folks. Remember the insurance industry shills like Robert Hartwig and Chris Dodd say Gene Taylor's bill will break the budget even though it calls for wind premiums to be actuarially sound. Who is breakin' the bank folks? Well ole Dodd of course. He dumps the flood deficit (a big chunk caused by wind claims dumpin') on the taxpayers.

The government is involved in the market because the private sector on its own does not adequately cover flood risk. Most homeowners' policies cover wind damage, but not flooding. The GAO has previously criticized FEMA's stewardship of the program and questioned how much money the agency pays private insurers for flood claims. Katrina and the other hurricanes of 2005 left the NFIP $17.3 billion in debt to the U.S. Treasury.

A FEMA spokeswomen declined to comment on the report.

The Senate bill would not expand the NFIP to cover wind damage, as was proposed in a bill approved by the House in September. In another difference with the Senate, the House bill would not forgive the NFIP's debt.

The Bush administration has threatened to veto the House bill. The insurance industry opposes expansion to cover wind.

Oh boy how does that "warm" rain feel folks? So them Reuters boys think that 17 billion can't be paid back? Well they haven't talked to Gene Taylor or looked back in history to see that we did it back in the 1980s.

All we want is a hand, not a hand out and this Cowboy and millions of folks like him stand ready to pay our way. What we ain't gonna stand for is crooks like big insurance and their waterboy Chris Dodd prentendin' like they is hepin' us when they is really stickin' it to us.