Jeb Bush secured highly inflated FEMA contracts for Carnival Cruise ships to house Katrina victims.

[seafan]

The backstory:


After Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005:


Carnival Cruise company (CEO Micky Arison) was under scrutiny for a decision by FEMA in 2005 to charter three cruise ships to be used as temporary housing for Katrina victims. The contracts awarded to Carnival were exorbitant and were under investigation by Henry Waxman on the Gov't Reform Committee.

Jeb Bush pulled the strings to obtain these FEMA contracts for Carnival.


Discussed in this link; direct links to articles are below.



Carnival CEO defends cruise ship deal for hurricane evacuees

September 30, 2005

.....

The senators also asked Chertoff to explain why the U.S. didn't accept Greece's offer to send two ships for free. Gov. Jeb Bush said those ships wouldn't have arrived until Oct. 10.

Bush said the contract might be an example of government waste, "but don't blame Carnival Cruise Lines for canceling cruise ships with 100,000 customers. That's their business."

"No good deed goes unpunished," Bush said at the convention.

FEMA cruise ship contracts defended

October 2, 2005

In a joint statement (the senators) said that "the Senate Federal Financial Management Subcommittee's investigation into a six-month $192 million FEMA contract with Carnival Cruise Lines has discovered that taxpayers are paying, per evacuee, four times the amount a vacation cruise passenger would have to pay. Three Carnival ships are only half full and mostly occupied by relief workers. Carnival's overhead costs in the FEMA operation are far lower than during normal cruises. The Carnival ships are docked. No fuel is being used and no entertainment is being provided to the relief workers. Yet, taxpayers are paying $2,550 per guest per week, which is four times the cost of a $599 per person '7 Day Western Caribbean' Cruise from Galveston."

"When the federal government would actually save millions of dollars by forgoing the status quo and actually sending evacuees on a luxurious six-month cruise it is time to rethink how we are conducting oversight. A short-term temporary solution has turned into a long-term, grossly overpriced sweetheart deal for a cruise line," Obama and Coburn said.

The FEMA contract has, however, found a defender in Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Speaking to travel agents at an event in Fort Lauderdale he said critics who have labeled the (Carnival) contract a "sweetheart deal" are wrong, and that the charge could inhibit companies in Florida from stepping forward in the future if a similar hurricane situation develops there.

"There's some senators and politicians up there in Washington criticizing this and I think it's wrong," the Sun-Sentinel newspaper reports Bush as saying.

....

So, to recap the connections:

John McCain--->Vicki Iseman, lobbyist---Alcalde & Fay lobbying firm-->Iseman's client Carnival Corporation-->Micky Arison, CEO of Carnival-->recipient of $236 Million FEMA Katrina contracts-->Jeb Bush, facilitator of FEMA contracts and recipient of Hector Alcalde's largess.

So, Jeb Bush used his influence as Florida Governor to secure inflated FEMA contracts for Carnival Corporation, a client of Alcalde and Fay. And magically, Hector Alcalde is a large benefactor for Jeb Bush.

You see, Jeb (*the smart one*) performs the lobbying, the influence peddling AND gets the payoff.



Nice how it somehow ALL works out grandly for the Bush Family.