President Joe Biden announced his administration would send relief payments to the tune of $700 per household to Hawaiians whose homes, communities, and loved ones were tragically lost in a sudden blaze last week that devastated the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui. Those checks, however, won’t even cover each household’s portion of the $113 billion in aid packages the United States has billed taxpayers for the war in Ukraine, which averages almost $900 per household.
After the cantankerous president told reporters he had “no comment” for the Maui victims as he lounged at the beach near his Delaware vacation home, the Biden administration scrambled to do damage control with more updates about help for Maui on Monday. The staffer who runs Biden’s Twitter account — who also apparently runs that of Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — tweeted that the government will generously be doling out a “one-time $700 payment per household offering relief during an unimaginably difficult time.”
The “Critical Needs Assistance,” which will be administered by FEMA, will be available to “applicants who were displaced from their homes and have critical needs,” according to the White House. It’s designed to be put toward water, groceries, and other urgent sustenance. Judging by average grocery costs in Hawaii, $700 would last a family of four just over a week — but that’s not even considering the obvious added difficulties present for survivors of the deadliest wildfire the country has experienced in a century.
The fire’s death toll
