If they had approved monies to ramp up the levees to withstand a category 5, first thing that would have happened is that people who didn't get their particular project through would have screamed pork; then there would have been a skimming based on who was going to get the contracts, and then there would have been lawsuits by enviromental groups who felt that they weren't saving the wetlands in a serious way.
And still the storm would have come and done its thing, because the lawsuits wouldn't have let them begin by now, and on top of that, NO wouldn't want to divvy up full matching funds, and there would have been a lot of local fussing going on (part turf wars, part wanting a piece of the action, part fiscal conservatives not wanting more debt, and various other interest groups getting their licks in).
Or maybe I'm just getting cynical in my old age.
I was thinking the same thing when Joe said 4-5 years ago this was known...
First of all, this was known LONG before President Bush was elected in 2000.
Second, IF it had been funded in 2001, Bush's first year, like you said---they wouldn't have even started on the building part of it yet!!! sheesh!
Joe knows all of this, and he is still acting like an hysterical old woman....and I can say that because I am a woman...
Environmentalist and liberals have preventing the levees from being upgraded for years...