Posted on 09/16/2005 7:36:31 AM PDT by hinterlander
President Bush has just concluded his obligatory speech from New Orleans to tell us how we're all going to be heavily involved and invested in the rebuilding of the Crescent City.
Let's take a quick look at his laundry list -- a list for which he neglected to name a price tag.
• The federal government will "do what it takes" and will "stay as long as it takes" -- great, just what I wanted to hear.
• States will be reimbursed for their efforts in responding to Katrina. Does that include states like North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Montana where some of the victims/refugees might have gone?
• Contrary to the strong suggestions of Jack Kemp, there will be no attempt to employ the idea of capitalism and free enterprise in this "recovery."
• The Katrina aftermath proved to be a massive failure of government. So, Bush and his men think that the correct response to major federal government mess-ups is what -- more federal government?
• He, of course, had to pander to the Left and note that "poverty has its roots in racial discrimination." What a load of malarkey. Poverty has its roots in the current welfare state -- which is exactly what Bush is proposing.
How much is this thing going to cost? Who knows! Could be $200 billion or more.
Who's going to pay for it? You are. I am.
Forget about making the tax cuts permanent. You know, the tax cuts that turned the economy around, pulling us out of a recession.
Want AMT relief? Too bad.
Want to get rid of the Death Tax? Not likely.
Sounds a lot like Marx to me: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
(Excerpt) Read more at humaneventsonline.com ...
Have we heard if Bush has asked Powell to be in charge of this "War on Katrina"?
We shall see. We shall see.
Bush played Rugby very well, I hear. In rugby, you don't pass the ball toward your goal. Passing is only done in the direction opposite to your goal.
He hasn't "handed" the Left anything more than he feels they deserve or is necessary..
There will need to be a public "debate" on whether the Fed. gov't (military) can step in without express permission of the state.
The debate will be a good one -- in which Blanco's failures will become apparent, even if no one names names.
Hundreds of billions in pork construction, and the new Medicare drug entitlement program if necessary.
This orgy of spending has to stop.
Run for office. Write your congressman. Vote Bush's buddies out of office.
We can guess the conservative position on the issue of Feds taking over state functions. They'd rather see the Feds refrain.
It will be most interesting to see what the libs say. I hope someone asks Hillary point-blank.
My brother (a "super-duper" liberal) was criticising the Feds for not stepping in, right away, to take the "disaster response" reins out of Blanco's hands.
I'm anxious to see how much he really likes the idea of Fed intervention, now that the Libs have opened this Pandora's box.
The federal debt (including unfunded liabilities for future Social Security and Medicare) is currently over $40 trillion, or $133,000 for every man woman and child in this country.
My Congressman (Duncan) is one of the few fiscal conservatives left.
Poverty has its roots in corrupt politicians promising the world and never delivering, lining their pockets, and always, ALWAYS sucessfully blaming it on the Republicans.
The root cause of poverty is poor education, and the root cause of poor education is the socialist Teachers Unions. The Teachers Unions need to be BUSTED and we need a President with big COJONES like REAGAN who was willing to stand up and BUST a union when he deemed it necessary to the public good.
Parsing words. I consider rescue, lifesaving etc. to involve some degree of care. I was using a catch-all term. Checked feet, see no precipice.
One thing I thought I heard was that this was going to be handled like the TVA. That there is SO MUCH work that needs to be done and these locals are going to get the jobs. Course that won't work for those who WILL NOT work, but I trust that that is a vocal minority.
I also thought I heard him say we're going to raise up parts of the city. If big swaths have to be demolished, and it sounds like they will, why not simply bury them and turn them into hills with land fill. Raise that city up it used to be higher, it sank. It's a perfect opportunity to fix it.
And I think that's the President's point. This is a tragedy, but within the tragedy is an opportunity to fix problems that have been handed down from generation unto generation for almost 150 years. He is bold enough to seize on it. I have my doubts too, but I have to commend him for that.
But if any one thinks that the cuts will come from entitlements or other direct transfers to individuals, they best think again. The only other sizable pot is the military budget. Yeah, lets cut that, while we have thousands of crazies out there wanting to kill Americans, and while the only really effective relief efforts were provided by the military (including the National Guard and Coast Guard) and private organizations such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army. You could probably squeeze a few dollars of pork out of the federal highway budget, and the budget for other federal works, if the local CongressCritters will let you, which again is doubtfull
This government has grown SO FAST since Reagan left office. It's like he was the boy with his finger in the dyke.
Amen. Think they'll even be able to get the building supplies they need to finish rebuilding their homes?
I liked when he said "Congress has provided $60 billion dollars". Someone said, where did Congress get 60 billion dollars?
People (the hardworking ants), who select their homestead site wisely, buy market rate insurances (take a dam hint about risk if you can't find or afford insurance), save to build their cash reserves for just such callamities, are then punished by governments by having even more of their property/income taxed to support the grasshoppers of our society.
There are always the unlucky which our generous society has always reached out to, except our taxpayers are now the primary insurance/welfare Nanny for all, including the people who function and profit by living recklessly. Just as "First Responders" must be your own self, one's own families and neighbors because residents outnumber the "government" thousands to one. When $!it happens, we're on our own, for up to a week or month, or if the Qaedas nukes ignite, a year or more. There is no Plantation Fairy to carry us all to Neverland Ranch. OOPs, bad example.
People now live en mass where they shouldn't - if they had to bear the true costs of their lifestyle site selection; we'll see in time that millions have concentrated where common sense, supported by field research, tells rational people that known risks are overwhelming. The re-insurance industry with its international money shall redefine insurability. The sheeple are childish in the extreme. They demand that others susidize their life styles.
Interesting facts...thanks.
Good question.
What a perfectly pithy statement and thank you for it! What I found fascinating about his speech was this statement:"...It is entrepreneurship that creates jobs and opportunity; it is entrepreneurship that helps break the cycle of poverty..." Now that sounds nice and good and I'm all for helping our fellow citizens, but I have to ask, (someone has to) just how do you change the mindset of people who've been taught "The gov't owes me a living" their whole life? That is another unenviable task before us.
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