There’s a world of difference between publicizing something (issuing press releases and holding a press conference) and having it buried in some obscure budget bill. Not even Congressmen read those things!
If Bush’s intent was to gut FEMA and leave it to the States, he should have made it absolutely clear that this was his intent instead of remaining silent and expecting people to figure it out for themselves.
To hire a horse lawyer with zero emergency management experience to head FEMA is the same as gutting it financially. If he simply disliked FEMA and thought States should be more involved with emergencies he could have publicly said so. As far as I know, he did no such thing.
Come on. Is it your contention that the President needs to explicitly announce every budget cut he makes, or only the one that you decide (after the fact) that you don’t like?
Was that his intent? And you know this how?
And what if he simply didn’t “dislike FEMA”? You’re jumping to a conlcusion, and then using that conclusion to support your argument. It’s called affirming the consequent.