The Battle of New Orleans

The American Spectator ^ | 03/10/2006 | Quin Hillyer

[bigeasy_70118]

George W. Bush approved too much federal money in response to Hurricane Katrina. Many liberals think he hasn't approved enough. Nearly everybody believes that whatever money has been spent has not been spent wisely.

They're all correct.

What's most distressing about the Bush response, and non-response, to Katrina is that all the President's promises for a creative new approach to major-disaster relief have gone for naught. One of the world's great cities is dying before our eyes, yet the Bush administration has actively fought against the very recovery proposal that is the most pro-free market, most pro-private enterprise, most taxpayer-friendly, most accountable disaster-relief legislation imaginable. And when under fire for his opposition to that plan, the President instead touted yet another scheme to throw more money down an unaccountable rat-hole -- and compounded the error by including legislative language that would preclude the very uses of the money for which the President explicitly dedicated it.

[bigeasy_70118]

This is an excellent and article and articulates my position on rebuilding New Orleans. I cannot understand how anyone, other than the Dem machine that controls Louisiana, would be for block grants and against the Baker plan.

I have said from day one, they are a waste of money.

[MNJohnnie]

Whaaa! Bush is not doing only what I want, when I want it. Whaaa! Do any of the Whine All The Time Choir suppose that maybe 1/5th of the time they might ACTTUALLY attack the Left on SOMETHING instead of spending all their time with this gutless knee jerk "Whine at Bush" again crap?

[bigeasy_70118]

I attack the left all the time. Bush is not above critcism. His second term is becoming a disaster. You ought to get off the cult of personality, read the article and start to think for yourself.

[2001convSVT]

Yes, New Orleans will be rebuilt. New Orleans is strategically located on the most important river in North America, no question about it, the city will be rebuilt.

The real question is who is going to pay for it? Should every American's taxes be increased to pay for it? How much responsibility do citizens of Louisiana have? How much responsibility do the citizens of New Orleans have?

The Federals will probably supply most of the money therefore, they should have most of the over site on how the money is responsibly spent. There is better than a 50-50 chance that another major hurricane will strike the city in our life time, therefore I see all levels of governments job is to make sure that nothing like the events of Katrina ever happen again and that the New Orleans of the future is able to handle any emergency on there own.

[SouthernBoyupNorth]

While I enjoyed many trips to the Big Easy there comes a time for things to end. This is my personal view of the situation. The Bush administration has thrown money at the problem, no plan, let the "leaders" in LA use the money correctly. Hah! That whole political system is more corrupt than NJ! New Orleans is built 6-8 FEET BELOW SEA LEVEL. It is in a WHOLE. Why are we rebuilding in the same site? And spare me the whole "historic significance" crap. Rebuild yes. On the same site? Hell no unless you backfill the whole with concrete!. Hire reputable contractors from somewhere else and send them in... and Build a city to keep the corrupt cretins in charge down there FAR away from ANY money.

[Pessimist]

"For if conservatives are not for preserving what is best of our culture, what are we for?"

Boy, that's a stretch!

N.O was the "best of our culture"? Not in my eyes.

And using that as an excuse for redistributionist policies is anything but conservative.

[CajunConservative]

Excellent article.

*Louisiana Ping List

If you would like on or off the Louisiana Ping list please FReepmail me and your name will be added or taken off of the list.

[econjack]

Quin Hillyer has a number of misleading statements in the article.

... because the top civil engineering minds in the country had repeatedly said their levee-and-floodwall system could withstand any storm that hit southeast Louisiana with the force Katrina mustered.

This is not true. The Corps stated that the levees could withstand a category 3 storm, not Katrina's category 4.

Second, I don't care what anyone says, if you live below sea level and don't buy flood insurance, you gambled and you lost. If the Corps lulled people into thinking they didn't need it, and the market believed them, all you're saying is that the price of flood insurance should be relatively cheap...all the more reason to buy insurance. If you didn't buy insurance, why do you expect me to pay for your private residence? No tax money came to Indy two years ago when thousands of home were destroyed by tornados, so why should I bail these people out? The same logic applies to the people with beach home in FL and on the coast.

The Baker Plan seems to have merit in that it appears to be based upon loans rather than grants. In other words, there's a chance for the gov't to be paid back. However, the history of the government's will to collect such loans is extremely bad. Just look at the student loan program or the WWII reconstruction loans that remain unpaid. It's time for Americans to quit looking to the gov't to solve all their problems. The state governments should be responsible for the lion's share of the cost of reconstruction, perhaps through bond issues. The federal gov't should be responsible for rebuilding its own social overhead capital (e.g., the port of NO), but the rest of the cost should fall on those who live there. In no way should the federal gov't pay for reconstruction of private property.

[kaktuskid]

New Orleans was dying before Katrina

[El Gran Salseron]

The decision as to who should pay for the rebuilding is a high-wire act with no net, for sure.

If the port isn't rebuilt then the economy will suffer badly. When people argue about this I do not think that they are taking into account the importance of the port of NO.

Hopefully, companies whose survival depend upon the port will foot much of the bill and again hopefully the W admin realizes this.

[bigeasy_70118]

Katrina was a category 3 hurricane when it hit New Orleans.

[bigeasy_70118]

I thought this article was a pretty good conservative critique of the situation. Considering this site has become nothing more than a name calling forum for those who blindly support Bush and those of us who prefer to work through issues on our own, I am not surprised by the reaction.

[econjack]

Agreed. The Port of NO is crucial and that's why I pointed out that federal payment for reconstruction of social overhead capital is important. It's the rest I'm having trouble with. Consider the following:

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans.

Interesting number, what does it mean?

Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.

Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1, 329,787 Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.C. !!!...........................Are all your calculators broken????Maybe everyone should just flood their houses, then we can all be on the "big easy" street for the rest of our lives, and forget about working, and paying taxes and all that useless stuff!

Come on, people, $2 million for each family! To me, that's an insult and I want no part of paying that bill.

[Rebelbase]

"His second term is becoming a disaster"

How so? I agree the border and immigration are a diaster, but what else reaches the incompetance of those proportions?

[bigeasy_70118]

This is really the problem with the Katrina situation. Yes, the numbers are staggering. But the money is not getting in the hands of people who need it.

Blank-o has increased our state's budget by 12% as a result of the federal windfall. Private insurers are not paying out with any kind of consistency. My damage estimate was $50k, I have received $38k and I have a cash value policy. I cannot collect my depreciation until I am done with repairs. Who does that help?

The Baker plan was an excellent conservative idea to help fund the recovery.

[econjack]

Really? The Discovery channel just had a special on the recontruction of the levees by the Army Corps of Engineers and they stated repeatedly that Katrina entered the Gulf as a "...category 3 storm, grew to category 5, but dimished to category 4 by the time it slammed into New Orleans".

Further, the Corps said the levees could withstand a category 3, but they also expected water from the lake to overflow the levees, but not breech them. Either way, home owners should have had the foresight to buy flood insurance and that's my whole point.

[Joe 6-pack]

"There is better than a 50-50 chance that another major hurricane will strike the city in our life time..."

I'll bet you that by November 2008 we'll have seen a suitable sucessor to Katrina....

[bigeasy_70118]

Spending. The ports deal. Need I mention Harriet Miers. And these aren't even the liberal media manufactured criticims.

[bigeasy_70118]

The storm weakened considerably before making its second landfall as an extremely large Category 3 storm on the morning of August 29 along the Central Gulf Coast near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

[Bommer]

One of the world's great cities is dying before our eyes

The city was already dead! It only gets resurrected once a year for Mardi Gras, and that only so it can get so drunk to try to forget the fact that it died long ago! New Orleans was Creole version of Gary Indiana!