Take it that last mile. And she did say the buck stops with her, is that enough . I think its a start. I think we need to see the president himself take responsibility. He has not be taking responsibility for many things lately, the nsa scandal in particular, so we need to see him take responsibility as well. This has got to be fixed and fixed fast. Jeanie and jason thank you. Our live coverage now is over. One year after the Superstorm Sandy the eastern seaboard is still recovering. After billions were pledged for the recovery why are so many people still homeless and why has so little of the money basketbalbasketballbeenspent. President obamas tenure has seen its share of controversy. How is his Approval Rating so high is he the second teflon president. And hardcore fans spend countless hours into the fantasticsy Football League should they be able to spend money and b bye buy shares. We begin with Superstorm Sandy. 12 months after the storm batter theebattered the northeast. Many are still waiting to rebuild. Al jazeera reports from a stat staton island neighborhood that turned out to be the deadliest place to be in new york. In 2012. One year later recovery seems unlikely if not impossible. Some chose to spend the day in somber reflection. Terrible. I wouldnt want to live here anymore. Anyone that dog does are frightened. She drew u drew up here grewt her summers on the beach. Many home tha hope that the t will buy people out. This was one of the hardest hit areas by sandy. Twentythree people died and two people on this block alone. And residents say less than 25 of their neighborses have neighe returned. At this restaurant friends gathered in the bar john totos grandmother ran the restaurant for decade. Decades. He brought the property 25 years ago to keep the Family Tradition alive. I had photos when my grandmother had it the 1950 hurricane. But he doesnt plan to rebuild the house next door. Im done. A ththe storm surged eight foot waves. Hopefully more and more people will come back and our lives will get back to normalcy. The chamber of commerce had a block party to lend support. With a third of businesses nearby still closed many people are not in the mood to celebrate any time soon. Joining me now are congressman gregory neaks. And joseph popello and president an ceo of zone a its a nonprofit that helps people hurt by Hurricane Sandy. I thank you all for joining us. Congressman i would like to start with you. The cost of the storm has been enormous. One estimate is that sandy has cost 65 billion. 27,000 people households have not basketbal been able to go be in their homes. Why are we in such a bad situation right now congressman . I can speak for some of the residents in the rockaway peninsula which i represent. Some of these individual lost theilosttheir homes they burnt e ground. It was devastating and the process of getting those homes back up its been difficult. We have to figure out what makes the process work in a faster way so that we can get those individuals back into their homes. We tried to do in new york city an Innovative Program called build it back it was the first time that fema has done it. And there there has been some ks and some folks had better results than others. We have to keep working at this until we get every person back into his or her home. People are still recovering from katrina eight years later. So its a lot of work to be done in a year given how much sandy damaged. Now the small businessed azation haadministration has approved 2. 4 billion in lozenges bu loas only dispursed 24 of that. Why is that being held up . Again a lot of it is red tape and paperwork, verifications. I know for example in rock away i had to go to bat tooth and nail to get the loan money for the largest Manufacturing Company that we have on the peninsula. Like madeline chocolate. Why are you having to do that . The president came to the area and said the red tape was going to be thrown away and expedited. Why are you working so hard to get things done. For some its verification to make sure there is no fraud and you want to make sure that the dollars are utilized in a certain way. We wante want verification to te place so the money is not going where it was not intended to. We want to get it where its supposed to. Some good folks that are needing the money are delayed in getting it. We have to streamline that process. We have to do it in a more efficient manner. We have seen a lot of fraud after natural disas a disasters in other parts of the country. You lost your home and the pictures of what happened are devastating. Rutgerss says new jersey state has 3pn billions of dollars needed. We have a lot more work to do and people that are frustrated and not back in their homes. It took 92 days for congress to act on aid for sandy victims. It was ten days for katrina and 17 days for gustov. You are in a new home and new mortgage why ar why are you notg the aid you needed. I got a letter stating i was on a waiting list. That was six months ago the only thing we were eligible for was a 30 year loan to relocate because this was not enough money to even build again. And people where you are from, union beach, new jersey peoplpeople there are angry . Angry, frustrated and they were given so much hope and hundred handshakes. The govenor came recently. Yes handshakes and pro promisesd they are still in trailers if there are trailers there its totally empty. What are h they saying to the govenor . They are asking if this and that and he is making promises. And they are just hughessing hope. Losing hope. You dont want to lose hope when that is all you have. Talk about hope, you have been in the business of giving people hope. We are looking at before and after pictures in staton island. You live an work wit and work we people. People are still living in their backyard. That is true. People are still living in their half built homes. I think its you know, its a first time for new york. There is a lot of coordination between the federal, state, city government. And we are just seeing the beginning of these programs getting under way its extremely frustrating and people are beyond impatient. One of the problems is that people have started rebuilding themselves. And by doing that people have put themselves in a position where they are going toward the end of the line for help. They are going to get reimbursement which is not a priority because people are back in their homes. Im working closely with people helping them understand how these programs work so they can be, participating. Stat stonstaton ey island is an interesting situation. The government has come in and bought out whole whole neighborhoods. Could that happen in other neighborhoods in staton island. Is there. That could happen in other neighborhoods in sta staton ala. It was an area that was inundated with floods. And the day after the storm they are like, we are going. It was also part of a city plan to eventually turn that area into wet land in part of the storm Water Management system. Congressman the Rockaway Community you are representing we still remember the burnings burning homes and still today a third 69 homes remain unoccupied. How long do you think it will take before this comes back to life fully. Well again the homes that were burnt to the ground i went out to breezy point and bell harbor. And this weekend we have been going back and forth with a number of individuals. And i saw the signs of frames of the homes going up. But they have decided to come together to get that done themselves. And we are working as feverishly as we possibly can to get 15 of the people in rockaway who are still not back in their homes. Part of the problem for some is they are looking for direction. There are new standard on how high your house is supposed to be. They dont want to rebuild and its no the at the flood level it should be. And then they are told they cant get insurance or they need to tear it down to start over again. When they rebuild they have to make sure its at a height level that is approved by the city and the state. Some have slowed down and hesitated and because they dont want to rebuild twice. That brings up the reality that these areas have been vulnerable. They have been talking about putting sea walls along staton island and the rockaway for a long time. Why hasn t it happened. Its starting to happen now. Previous to the storm when it we were asking for those items the money wasnt there. There was a today that was done. Forfortunately we had the moneyo put the dunes and the sand replenishment and wh jetties et cetera. I know in the rockaways they have started phase one which is putting the do yo dunes and sano protect people again. And they are going to finish the study in the next year and put in place the essential elements to protect the people from having this kind of devastate, storm again. So, it takes sometime. This doesnt happen overnight. And i know that for anyone who is victi victimized by it, every that goes by is too long. To do a full plan to make sure its done right it is going to take a lot of time. Is that the way to go. Natural solutionings in staton island taking things back to nature. Using dunes versus sea walls. Its going to take a combination of things putting together. The reconfigure configures reconfigl infrastructure. And its a comprehensive approach that has to take place. In response to the capital fridaprojects that were in the e line. After two years when they happen. They dont get funded and reallocated they never happen. The same thing happened at fox beef wherbeach. They never happened. No one pushed politically it get them done. And now we are at a disaster at this level and now we are going to say what are we going to do together . All of these pieces together to make it work . We have to build krerktl correctly. Anna what do you and your neighbors hope will happen . What we all hope will happen is that we get to rebuild and go home. The money, wherever it is comes in. Instead of promises and red tape and nothing coming out of it. What do you tell to the congress man. I hope whatever he can say or he can say on that his promise or word is more likely to have us go back home instead of telling us what is going to happen and it did happen and its not happened. Congressman a final word what would you like to tell your sit constituents and everyone that has suffered from this storm. I can tell you this is a bipartisan issue so far especially those that represent the part of the east coast that was devastated by the storm. Democrats and republicans alike we are putting our elbows to the grind and doing what he w we ca. To make sure that we expedite the kind of services and need and resources to get our constituents back home and back to where they were. What we want to do is make sure we build it back and back better than it was. See people can go back to work and fix our board walks and i will assure you we will continue fighting until we get that done. An important effort a lot of people depend on it. I wish you all the best of luck with your efforts with all of the people tess tim. Its time to see what is trending. There are a bunch of articles on al Jazeera Website that focus up on ways to protect ourselves from the next big storm. If we dont do anything. New york and new jersey and miami could account for 3 i 3 3f the global flood losses. This year new orleans spent a 75mile line of levies and flood walls and drainage pumps. And last year they had a homeowners an businesses upgrade for protection. The Hurricane Sandy rebuilding task portion held a resign come tion. Competition. Diana fee signe designed these green floating marshes. They will decrease pollutants they are trying to figure out how to anchor the noting marshes t floating marshes to the cities. New york city in a few short years will be a home only to fish. I hope henry is yonge. Did wrong. President obamas second term has gotten off to a rocky start. Is he truly a new teflon president . What do you think . Join the conversation on twitter and google plus and facebook on inside story, we bring together unexpected voices closest to the story, invite hardhitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you. No White House Administration in modern times has been without scandals. The president seems to float above the grey. Grey fray. And with the Affordable Care website still on life support, they have apologized for the problems before the house ways and means committee. When dave camp asked when congress will know how many people enrolled in obamacare he ran into a stonewall. Folks are still in the process of enrolling and well have the numbers available in mid november. You have no numbers on who has enrolled you have no no ide. Well get those numbers in mid november. Well get those numbers in mid november. How do you not know how howy people have enroll. Well get those numbers in mid november. Well get those numbers in mid november. And down the hall. These are caused by human error or technical problems. Nothing that has been released has shown we are flying t trying to do something illel or unprofessional. When we find something noncome noncompliance we report it. Professor at George Washington university and senior fellow. Thanks for coming back, good to have you here. During president reagans first term democrat congresswoman of colorado said then of his perform angsperformance he hasn perfecting the teflon coated presidency nothing seems to stick to him. To him. Does president obama have teflon base. The democrats are terrified, horrified is the better word for what they see hang i happening e republican party. Ronald reagan took office after four failed president s in a row. Johnson and nixon and ford and carter were all failures. People wanted him to succeed. President Obamas White House jim, has had its problems. Based on the comments the president didnt know it happened until they made news. The nsa spying on foreign leaders and the healthcare dot. Gov and the irs and the gun running story and the administration has a lot to answer for. But it seems that none of these issues touch the president that directly. Can i just wait until mid november to answer your questions, okay without what is playing out on capitol hill an may play out tomorrow morning when the classic washington search to burn a witch and the political gains manship. I think its an interesting matter which points to what is a curious management style. And its why, you know, a huge difference with reagan. This is a guy who i think had heart Academic Community organizer an and combination of pga pga mattispga pragmaticism. Its a guy who sort of often and Community Organizer mode like when he was in the basements of Baptist Churches in the southside of chicago in key formative years. Step back and let everything play out. And often is no the to not to worry. I expect he is not hughessing too muc losing toomuch sheepp sheep. Leep. He has a confounding decision to spend as much time as a young candidate getting ready for the caucus. He was proven right on the subject se dont ask dont tel and he didnt think the dimin ts right. And he was again proven correct. There was questions about the sort of folks that he has around him and the extent that they may on occasion shield him from bad news. What was it about his perform angst that th performance not know what is happening in hissed administration ron. Roronald reagan didnt know what was going on in the white house base. Basement. What he does communicate with people is the sense of self confidence that jim just described. And that gives people fend if he has faith in his policies things are going to workout that encourages people to have faith in him. The president s quarterly numbers have dropped only 3 . That is and when you look at a Washington Post abc news poll you can see how the president s numbers have mostly stayed between the high 40s a and 50s throughout his presidency. Jim considering he started his administration with the worst recession since the 1930s do you think part of it is that he benefitted from it with low expectations. I think he benefitted from his choice of enemies. You know if you are walking through the streets of miami, phoenix or chicago, when folks talk about what is going on in this town, they will probably by and large point to congressional republicans. Most recently when it comes to the Government Shutdown than to obama. Its impressive that on a relative basis that those ratings have proven fairly steady in october so far we dont see any big hike or we dont see any big decline. And depechble depending on what ones expectations are. And if one is a republican expect a big decline as a result of the obamacare mess. Neither has played out. Bill is this part of the problem. Congress is at 12 and the reality is that this is such a division and polarzation in the end no one moves to one side or the other. President obama has his people and the republicans have their people and they are not goings t going to move or favor eithr side no matter what. For 30 years this country has become more polarized. Bhawobama came in promising to e the country. Remember in 2004 he said this is no blo blue america and be no red america. Sttthe republicans have been n objecton o stinate. Bringing up that speech where he was so optimistic. Roronald reagan was one of the most optimistic president s in resent memory. And when it came to america he liked to say this. We can say to the world and pledge to our children, americas best days lie ahead. And you aint seen nothing yet. Jim do you see that kind of spirit of optimism anywhere in barack obama these days . I think there is some of it. I think to understand, one has to understand these Key Community organizing years on the southside of chicago before he went to harvard law school. The chicago years were critical. They answered the two Big Questions in life. What was his self identity as a black man and what was his home if iit was chicago. You have a guy who is intellectually more complicated and more knowing so an and one sees things with a greater degree of complexity. There asthere is an interestingf raw idealism and cold blooded pragmaticism which one saw in the whole syria mess. His first impulse was to act in what he thought was the highest morally defensible way and go in there for the chemical weapons and the more he thought about it and what was going on in the u. N. And what the ramifications were w. H , h