In a recent Cato@Liberty post that I’m particularly proud of (because it’s about TV! — “TV is Great”), I pointed out an example where a midwestern farming couple victimized by the recent flooding weren’t expecting help from the government.

Said Barb Boyer:

We’ve always lived our life that we’re responsible for our own choices, our own destiny. And we chose not to carry the flood insurance. That was our responsibility. …[O]f course, we are going to need help, but do I expect it? No. We’ll start over. That’s all I know right now.

Well, it looks like they might get help from the government anyway. Introduced in the House on Wednesday, H.R. 6587 would provide various forms of tax relief for the victims of the recent harsh weather in the Midwest.

When tax time comes, the Boyers and their neighbors will be presented with lots of ways to reduce their tax liability for having been in the area where the storms and flooding hit — nevermind that they didn’t insure for it. They’d be fools to refuse the savings.

Libertarians often talk about the possibility of private charity picking up the slack for reduced government welfare. Statists scoff at such notions, pointing to the weakness of local community and cultural institutions today. The charge rings true, but the reason, if this is the case, is not that the American character is weak and that it casually ceded responsibility to government. It’s because government largesse is an insidious, attacking organism that goes right for the fibers and joints of civil society to draw down their strength and make them arthritic.

My sympathies go to victims of the flooding. I would go to my pocket to help them. But our representatives are in our pockets already, taking not just tax money, but the sense of sympathy and shared purpose that would bind us to our fellow Americans.