You need to pay a fee to get evacuated

Imagine stranded in a city under seige, waiting for that evacuation chopper to take you to safety, then being told that they have to pay to get out of there.

Yep, that's right, it seems there is a 1956 law requiring the State Department to be reimbursed for getting you out of harm's way. First, on Monday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the government would charge evacuees commercial rates to take them out by plane or boat.

The idea that Americans would have to pay to board one of the ships for safety is drawing the ire of stranded citizens and their politicians and families back home. For example, Atlanta resident Maya Nessouli, whose mother, brother and sisters are in Beirut stated that the government wanted $3,000 per person for the helicopter to Cyprus and they could not even bring their luggage with them.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said "A nation that can provide more than $300 billion for a war in Iraq can provide the money to get its people out of Lebanon."

While I usually refrain from quoting Representative Pelosi, I find it hard to believe that we have to pay our government to rescue us from something that we are not responsible for. It is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure the safety of its citizens in the event of a crisis happening in another country, not to bill them for saving them.

Honestly, some bean counter in a bureaucratic office in the State Dept probably discovered the clause and started preparing bills to citizens that were being evacuated.

Fortunately, the fees will be waived by the government outright because of the bad PR it's been creating.

CNN.com - Americans irked by fee to flee Lebanon