Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it is my understanding. But in the newfound felicity and spirit of the season, wouldn't you think that since the real estate market along the coast has dried up--why? Because if you cannot get flood insurance because you cannot afford it, you cannot get a mortgage. If you cannot get a mortgage, there are a lot of folks who cannot buy a house. By the way, those who need to sell their houses cannot get the buyers. So what happens to the real estate market in places such as the Tampa Bay region of Florida, as chronicled by the Tampa Bay Times--an example that a homeowner's present flood insurance premium is $4,000; under the new bill, $44,000. That is unaffordable. What we are merely asking for is that FEMA do an affordability study while this is delayed for a few years to determine what is the affordability. If this is supposed to be actuarially sound, then that came as a result of huge losses to the program because of an unusual thing--not a hurricane called Katrina but because the waters rose, it put pressure on the dikes and it breached the levees, and that flooded the bowl called New Orleans, and that caused lots of economic loss, and they are figuring all of that in the flood insurance premiums. And oh, by the way, 40 percent of all those flood insurance policies are in my State of Florida. Before we hear from the Senator from New York, I want to say this: Floods come from many sources. Obviously, floods come from hurricanes.…”