Earth to Ron Paul: What happened before 1979

Last week’s Republican debate is a fitting place to begin an examination of how Washington can stand to learn from/about its own history. Newt Gingrich even brought it up during the debate, when he mentioned that American children should be obligated to learn American history. To be fair, a) American history is already mandated by most curricula, whether or not children actually absorb the information, and b) Gingrich’s comment came in the midst of a tangent about requirements for citizenship—but still, it’s hard to find fault with a pro-history argument.

The debate was rife with historical claims of varying levels of dubiousness, but one that stood out was Ron Paul’s anti-FEMA logic.



Good question, Congressman Paul: What happened before 1979?

He’s right that we didn’t have FEMA, but that didn’t mean we didn’t have federal assistance for natural disaster relief. We’ve had that pretty much as long as we’ve been around. In fact, Washington has been helping the states out of disaster-related binds since 1803, following a major fire in New Hampshire. (That’s 1803, more than 200 years ago, back when Thomas Jefferson, Ron Paul’s good buddy, was president.)

In the 176 intervening years, a bevy of federal agencies were established to deal with specific problems and solutions. The resulting bureaucracy frustrated the states until the National Governor’s Association—which represents state governments, not federal—suggested streamlining the system. The result was FEMA.

Evidence from the years leading up to the creation of the agency shows support for federal management of disaster relief. For example, in this New York Times article following the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, small town residents are asking for exactly that kind of help.

And here’s the kicker: The then-governor of California, who shows up in that article at a rally for public disaster relief, is Ronald Reagan—the same Ronald Reagan whose presidential library played host to the debate, the Ronald Reagan invoked by the candidates as a paragon of Republican virtue.