We really don't want that to be a factor.
But with all due respect, look at Blanco and Nagin and ask, can you trust those nimrods with $250 billion? That is the stark choice those outside your state are staring in the face now. We want to help. But we also don't want our tax dollars to line the pockets of those who created this disaster.
So I'm asking an honest question to our Louisiana freepers - how do we send billions to your state without enriching the parasites? I do not ask that question out of malice, but out of a genuine desire to help without my tax dollars going to the bloodsuckers.
Making a decision on the level of levee protection is the starting point. That's got nothing at all to do with who is in charge locally. Delaying this decision as it has been is not fair to those in the affected area. You are free to ponder this decision in the comfort of your own home with a nice roof over your head. Even after almost five months, this is a luxury that hundreds of thousands of your fellow citizens don't have. How long must they wait for this simple yes or no decision?
One thing that could be done is to set up a Gulf Coast Recovery Agency under joint control of congress and the president. Locals and states would help to define their needs while the agency would handle all of the financing and money dispersal. None of the local or state officials would be in the money chain. This agency would exist until it is no longer needed as defined by congress and the president. The priority of this agency would be to speedily assist as many people as possible and not leave folks out to dry like they have been all along the coast. FEMA is not working, either here or in Mississippi. To much bureacractic red tape and not designed to handle such a massive problem. Like I said earlier, screw the politicians, help the people.