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Growing Burden

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THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: December 3, 2008

On Sunday, the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season came to a soggy end. Although this year's season was one of the deadliest on record, most of the death and destruction was visited on islands in the Caribbean. That doesn't make that toll any less horrible. As a practical matter, however, the fact that no major hurricane hit Florida for a second straight year was a good thing for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the Legislature.

Having put all Floridians on the hook for the billions in insurance claims major storms would cause, Crist and lawmakers have been hoping that no big storms hit before they can, politically speaking, get out of town or the federal government bails them out by creating a national catastrophe fund.

President-elect Barack Obama supported a national catastrophe fund during the campaign. On the other hand, the federal government has its financial hands full. It has been - or is thinking about - bailing out Wall Street, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the banking sector and the Big Three U.S. automakers. If most or all of the Big Three end up in Bankruptcy Court, the feds might have to bail out the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, on which the pensions of retired autoworkers would be dumped.

Given the huge tab for all of that, we wouldn't bet on Congress, facing a $1 trillion fiscal year deficit, having an appetite for any more financial destruction.

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