[Ichneumon]

The Lake Pontchartrain project is slated to receive $3.9 million in the president's 2005 budget. Naomi said about $20 million is needed.

This is the key line, everything else is spin.

Note how small an amount of money this is. The city of New Orleans itself could have paid for this easily if it had bothered to -- it's about the cost of building six miles of freeway. Chicken feed on the scale of city or state governments. Blaming the federal government for not footing the bill, as if no one else closer to the problem could be bothered to pay for it, is ridiculous.

[KJC1]

Note how small an amount of money this is. The city of New Orleans itself could have paid for this easily if it had bothered to -- it's about the cost of building six miles of freeway. Chicken feed on the scale of city or state governments. Blaming the federal government for not footing the bill, as if no one else closer to the problem could be bothered to pay for it, is ridiculous.

And we've got a winner! Very good post. The next question this "reporter" should be asking is about the appropriation of city and state monies.