[Paradox]

It is a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions, I'd say a bit of TR (the other Roosevelt) is due here.

[r9etb]

Am I supposed to have heard of David Gold?

[Dane]

Well clinton isn't proposing it, remember character counts.

[churchillbuff]

I agree with Gold. My taxes are too high. Our federal deficit and federal debt are too big. Spending is out of control, and Clinton is using it all as an excuse to call for tax increases. the pressure for tax increases is going to build, unless spendig is cut. If I wanted huge federal spending, I'd support Hillary. I don't want huge federal spending - - so who should I support? The republican president isn't delivering on Republican small-government policies, so what do we do?

[Rodney King]

Don't know who David Gold is, but he is correct. At $200 billion, we could just give every displaced family a check for $400,000. It's a monumental waste of money. The GOP are the worst spenders in history.

[Paradox]

For sake of discussion, have we discussed WWRD? (What Would Reagan Do?)...

[johnny7]

I haven't heard ANYBODY here supporting an FDR/LBJ style ANYTHING.

[Glenn]

Freepers are an argumentative lot.

The only reason this place works at all is that everyone does not go nuts on the same day.

[jveritas]

Who is is David Gold? Is he another Buchananite or a third party moron?

[Nonstatist]

I agree with Gold. Lots of this is wasteful spending. Bush should not be pissing off his base (or cranking up govt spending like this), its not smart politics.

[Sir Gawain]

What would Davy Crockett do?

[Captain Kirk]

Conservatives completely gave up on small government after 9-11, if not before.

[NameItClaimIt]

Gold said he was surprised and disheartened to find many posters on FreeRepublic.com making excuses for the huge proposed spending. Bet they'd be sounding a different tune if Clinton were president and he had proposed it!

Anybody ping David for his response?

[fatnotlazy]

I have no problem spending the money on New Orleans to a point...rebuilding and lending a helping hand, yes. Giving money outright to everyone with a hand out -- no.

The President has said spending will be cut to help pay for this...fine...let's cut the spending on all these foreign governments who use the money to kick us in the rear. It's time we spend our money taking care of our own, rather than throwing it around as foreign aid.

We can also make some further cuts in all those government entitlement programs and other perks for "the poor." I think the President has wanted to get government out of the welfare and charity business. This might be a good way to do it.

[cripplecreek]

I support LIMITED federal spending in this case. Let the feds rebuild the levees correctly and the city should be rebuilt by private industry and the people who want to live there.

[cynicom]

FR is a republican site, not a conservative site, Gold surely must know that?

[jimfrommaine]

Great society programs have cost this nation trillions of dollars. African-Americans were promised a better life, yet generations have become tied to welfare for their survival. And families have been destroyed. Single parent homes seem to be the norm not the exception.
How can anyone with compassion, want to rebuild New Olen's and the gulf region with the same ignorance that ultimately caused the disaster? Free Enterprize zones, minority home ownership, school vouchers, reliance on faith based institutions, will wipe out poverty in the gulf, and folks throughout the nation will demand it. The federal bureaucracy can be dismantled. By doing the right thing, hope and opportunity will be create for folks, and we'll save trillions of dollars over the next generation.

[MNJohnnie]

Do any of you "conservatives" have any idea how much this is costing in lost Fed tax revenues and cash outlays in direct aid to evacuees? So what is the SOLUTION????? HUH, I hear all this WHINING about how much it cost, I hear NOTHING being offered as what SHOULD be done. Have any of you even bothered to consider the destruction to Infrastructure we took decades building? So what SHOULD the GOP and Bush be doing? If you don't like the Bush plan, what SHOULD we be doing? You in particular Chamberlinbuff. Stop this constant whining of yours and offer some IDEAS. You all are starting to sound just like the Hysteric Left, WHINE 100% of the time, IDEAS ZERO % of the time. You all seem to forget we are a Representative Republic, NOT a Presidential Dictatorship. We cannot just impose YOUR emotional whimsy by Presidential Fiat. So ideas that actually CAN be done rather then this constant whining.

[Tennessee_Bob]

I'd support a rebuilding - as long as it located New Orleans somewhere inland away from the ocean and above sea level.

[loreldan]

Well, this freeper doesn't have an opinion yet, because I don't know the facts about the spending so far. Did the 60 billion spent so far go to repair infrastructure like the levees, roads, etc? Or did some of it go to replace someone's mansion that didn't have flood insurance? I don't think anybody will complain too much about repairing infrastructure, but I will complain about paying for something that should have been taken care of by a responsible homeowner.