Personal Responsibility??

After reading this morning's Hernando Today, I scratched my head and wondered what happened to personal responsibility, in reference to home ownership. I am referring to the land buy-out being offered through the Emergency Management Department of Hernando County which is being sponsored by FEMA. In the article, Mr. Leto is actually suggesting that private property owners take him up on the offer of land buy-out by FEMA to eliminate their problems of flooded land. Why did it become the responsibility of government to buy swampland, at very inflated rates, when the property owner did not have flood insurance? Taking into consideration the cost of this program, one may say it is cheaper in the long run to buy this swampland, instead of assisting in the continual rebuilding of property after many devastating storms. To that argument, I would agree, but the people mentioned in this article did not have flood insurance, which goes to the heart of the big picture. We are now subsidizing property with our flood insurance premiums through FEMA for individuals that chose not to buy coverage. I realize the property mentioned in the article was not in the 100 flood area but these people still would have had the opportunity to buy flood insurance in the event of a catastrophic event to protect their own property. With this FEMA buy-out program for swampland, combined with subsidizing of homeowners insurance through the state of Florida for Citizens Insurance, responsible homeowners can look forward to increased flood insurance premiums, along with double digit increases in their homeowners insurance next year. Our elected officials need to take a real hard look at the insurance crisis in this country because it is creating a financial hardship on many homeowners struggling to make ends meet at the end of each month while making mortgage payments.