Excerpt: By March, however, the state’s vision began to change. That month, state lawmakers and the governor revealed that they wanted to assign the State Guard $89 million to buy boats, planes and helicopters. They wanted a specialized unit within the guard to have police powers and the ability to carry weapons. And they wanted to boost the State Guard to 1,500 members. Instead of being activated only during emergencies within Florida, they could be sent to any state to “protect and defend the people of Florida from threats to public safety.”
This amuses me too. Because in a disaster, there’s more concern on “law and order” (read: punishing people whose lives are already destroyed by a natural disaster) than on aid. I know that in general talking about government budgets as a zero-sum game isn’t very accurate, but in this case, wouldn’t you rather have money allocated to aid after a disaster than law enforcement after a disaster?