At this point, anything Louisiana asks for is suspect.
I understand the destruction, loss, and pain. However, if my home is destroyed by a tornado and I do not have the proper insurance, no one is going to give me a new one.
Billions in aid is flowing into Louisiana, and government programs that have worked in the past for other catastrophes should be adequate.
New Orleans is not special.
"However, if my home is destroyed by a tornado and I do not have the proper insurance, no one is going to give me a new one. "
A very important distinction is that the residents of NO were told by the federal govt that the levee system would hold for a cat 3 hurricane. It didn't. While residents knew that the levees were no match for cat 4 or 5, it has been shown that Katrina was only a cat 2 hurricane by the time it reached NO. Exactly what kind of levee protection is that? Just what have we taxpayers been paying for?
It appears from years of records that it was known by the federal govt that the levees wouldn't hold and nothing was ever said to warn the residents or rectify the situation. This is goes back more to Clinton and him being totally asleep at the wheel (or messing with the interns).
Add on top of that the fact that the barrier protection has been lost and that this responsibility to maintain it fell into the federal govts hands and you can understand why Louisiana residents are POed at the feds. Now pile on top of that those with proper flood insurance are getting the run around and not getting their checks. Wouldn't you be rather upset if 6 months after that torrnado hit your house that you didn't get your insurance check??? While not everyone in NO was insured, the insured homeowners are getting the run around in too many cases.
It is simply a huge mess down there and the federal govt should get a lot of the blame just as President Bush says it should. It is interesting that The Netherlands is 60% below seas level and experience horrific storms and yet they have an outstanding flood control system. Why can't the US produce something just as good? Even more importantly, this tells us about how vulnerable all of our cities are to a major terrorist attack by dirty bombs, chemical agents, biological agents and so on. That should worry everyone here and we need to see NO as a reflection of what will happen in the next city-wide crisis in this country.
Whether you like it or not, NO is a strategic city for the US. It has 2 major ports and serves a significant part of the country. It sits virtually on top of the strategic oil reserves and is an entry for natural gas and petroleum to the US. It seems strange that a billion dollars a day go into Iraq with hardly a squawk by conservatives and yet they scream bloody hell when our own taxpaying citizens are asking for what gets used up in a week in Iraq. Something is very odd about that.