Posted on 09/07/2005 10:00:50 PM PDT by Uncle Joe Cannon
Largess in Louisiana Money Flowed to Questionable Projects State Leads in Army Corps Spending, but Millions Had Nothing to Do With Floods
By Michael Grunwald Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 8, 2005; Page A01
-snip-
In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times as large.
Much of that Louisiana money was spent to try to keep low-lying New Orleans dry. But hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to unrelated water projects demanded by the state's congressional delegation and approved by the Corps, often after economic analyses that turned out to be inaccurate. Despite a series of independent investigations criticizing Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending, Louisiana's representatives have kept bringing home the bacon.
For example, after a $194 million deepening project for the Port of Iberia flunked a Corps cost-benefit analysis, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) tucked language into an emergency Iraq spending bill ordering the agency to redo its calculations. The Corps also spends tens of millions of dollars a year dredging little-used waterways such as the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the Atchafalaya River and the Red River -- now known as the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway, in honor of the project's congressional godfather -- for barge traffic that is less than forecast.
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(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Clinton Hates Black People
Uh-oh! Heads will roll.
They aren't smart enough to know when to STFU.
"Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) tucked language into an emergency Iraq spending bill ordering the agency to redo its calculations."
uh, punch him in the nose Mary, we will have to talk about that, right? NOT\
Louisiana is hardly unique in this respect. Let's not forget Alaska's quarter-billion dollar Bridge to Nowhere in the current transportation bill. That would build a lot of levees.
Let's have that investigation of where did the money go.
bttt
When the WaPo prints this, you know that the Dems are on the ropes. :-)
Don't bank on it. The MSM worm turned yesterday with the usual suspect text readers saying it is time to stop the bickering, finger pointing, infighting, and yadda, yadda, yadda. They have seen the light and were about to get bit in the arse, so now anything the right says will be partisan attacks. And "you can take that" to the bank.
bump
The most corrupt state in the land has been mis-managing their money and I rather like Tancredo's idea that not one dime of the relief money flow through Louisiana.
"But overall, the Bush administration's funding requests for the key New Orleans flood-control projects for the past five years were slightly higher than the Clinton administration's for its past five years."
You really have a way with words! Couldn't have said it better myself.
Who cares about all that? The real issue is why FEMA didn't teleport New Orleans to higher ground before the levee broke. It's an outrage!
I know it could be done. I read it on the Internet!
In defense of Susan, she might be under the influence of pain killers from the last time she looked in the mirror. That woman must have to sneak up on a glass of water
LOL
Do I remember right that MSNBC's Campbell Brown's father is in jail for fraud or something like that in Louisiana? Can't recall if it was insurance fraud, or levees, or casinos... It just comes to mind reading this story.
Susan Estrich's head and voice aren't right. I'm not convinced she's a human being. Every time she's on TV, I think, "Quick! Call ART BELL! It's one of THEM!"
You know it's like an abused wife, she thinks that is how things are until she escapes and meets a really nice man becomes independent, realizes that she doesn't need a man to support her and finds out you don't HAVE to live like that.
There, I fixed it.....LOL
This is a good one.
It's a very good idea. We know funds were not spent on the construction of a viable flood prevention system.
Maybe Katrina will warn people not to reside under sea level unless there are in one of these.
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