Biden’s $700 aid for Hawaii fire victims falls short of their Ukraine bill contribution.
President Joe Biden announced his administration would send relief payments to the tune of $700 per household to Hawaiians whose homes, communities, and loved ones were tragically lost in a sudden blaze last week that devastated the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui. Those checks, however, won’t even cover each household’s portion of the $113 billion in aid packages the United States has billed taxpayers for the war in Ukraine, which averages almost $900 per household.
After the cantankerous president told reporters he had “no comment” for the Maui victims as he lounged at the beach near his Delaware vacation home, the Biden administration scrambled to do damage control with more updates about help for Maui on Monday. The staffer who runs Biden’s Twitter account — who also apparently runs that of Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — tweeted that the government will generously be doling out a “one-time $700 payment per household offering relief during an unimaginably difficult time.”
The “Critical Needs Assistance,” which will be administered by FEMA, will be available to “applicants who were displaced from their homes and have critical needs,” according to the White House. It’s designed to be put toward water, groceries, and other urgent sustenance. Judging by average grocery costs in Hawaii, $700 would last a family of four just over a week — but that’s not even considering the obvious added difficulties present for survivors of the deadliest wildfire the country has experienced in a century.
The fire’s death toll has surpassed 100, but with some 1,300 people still missing, responders expect it to climb far higher. Thousands of buildings, mostly homes, were destroyed, and the damage costs are in the billions.
In the meantime, the bill Washington policymakers are charging American taxpayers for the war in Ukraine has cost each household an average of nearly $900 so far — or more than 125 percent of what the Biden administration is now so benevolently offering back to devastated Maui families.
“According to the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. had about 127.9 million households during fiscal year 2022, which ended last September, making the estimated cost for the approved aid to Ukraine per American household about $884,” reported The Daily Signal last week.
Siphoning almost $900 off your income to send overseas and then insisting you be thankful when you’re “gifted” part of that money back to rebuild your entire life only makes sense in Common Core math. But that’s the government for you, right?
Elle Purnell is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. Follow her work on Twitter @_etreynolds.
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