Posted on 08/29/2006 3:57:58 AM PDT by IrishMike
"New Orleans has suffered from the trauma of three crises," says Louisiana Congressman Bobby Jindal. "First was the hurricane, second was the levees breaking and third has been the widespread incompetence of the federal, state and local government response. This has been a one-year case study in bureaucracy and red tape at its very worst."
Congressman Jindal's aptly stated charge of incompetence across all levels of government is the gentle assessment. Here, on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, are the views of prominent Democrats:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, touring New Orleans: "What is needed in New Orleans is public works projects." Senator Hillary Clinton, from a church in Harlem: "Our leadership has turned its back on those people who still need us."
Turned its back? As the chart nearby indicates, Congress has approved $122.5 billion for the Gulf Region, a figure incomprehensible in size to anyone but, well, a politician. The real wonder is that anyone is surprised, much less feigning surprise, that things are going poorly.
New Orleans' plight is not the result of federal underspending. Uncle Sam has spent some five times more on Katrina relief than any other natural disaster in the past 50 years. Both parties in Congress and the White House opted for the status quo by relying on federal bureaucracies to oversee the rebuilding effort. If Uncle Sam were deliberately trying to waste these funds, it is hard to imagine a better way than to funnel the money through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Both HUD and the SBA have been on the chopping block back to the early Reagan years. ..........................
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Where do you get your information that $122 billion has been squandered by New Orleans so far? That would be kind of hard to do since $110 billion has been allocated by the federal government for the entire gulf coast and less than half of that has actually been spent. Please tell me where you get the information that $122 billion has been squandered.
I will be anxiously awaiting your "proof". The misinformation floating around is mind boggling.
I can't stand how the underclass always holds us hostage to their children. How about being self-sufficent before having children? People make irresponsible decisions and then expect a lifetime of freebies. Saw news reports of Mexicans arriving to do the work, with no excuses. The New Orleans residents are full of excuses which is becoming very tiresome.
It is in the lead editorial in todays's WSJ..or
as you may not know..Wall Street Journal....You
can trust me???????????? Jake
You could raze the entire area and rebuild it brand new exactly as it was the day before Katrina for about $50 billion if not cheaper.
That's insane.
Diggity
August 29, 2006...wall street journal....ok?? jAKE
This site gives the daily down and dirty on Lousiana.
http://www.thedeadpelican.com/
Hope you don't mind that I didn't trust you. I read that article and it refers to allocated funds for the entire gulf region, not spent funds on N.O. or Louisiana only. It also refers to being 5 times as much as any other disaster, not 10. There is a difference in allocated funds and spent funds. Also a big difference in spent funds and "squandered" funds. It's a lot of money, no doubt about it and the people in the region are grateful for it. But to say it's all been squandered is just a little bit of exaggeration, don't you think?
There's hundreds of miles of levees. Where do you start especially since the entire life of the storm was 6 days? Two days of that was in Florida.
I remember that poster. Wonder what happened to him? Those 3000 pound bags were pushed out of the way like they were feathers. Funny really, people complain that people didn't evacuate or get out of the city and they complain that people didn't stay and sandbag the levees. Can't win for losing.
He probably got burnt out with all of the bashing. I don't understand it either, I mean, people stay and people whine, people evacuate and more people whine. The fact is that the majority of people did do what they were supposed to do before, during and after these storms.
I am the first to admit there needs to be a major change in how things are done here but I also deal with the facts. There's been so much misinformation told about things that it will take two lifetimes to sort out the truth from lies.
People conveniently forget that the state also got hit very hard by Rita and that the funds dispersed were for the immediate clean up for both storms. SWLA is coming along pretty well but Cameron Parish still has a lot of work to get done. Three entire parishes were destroyed, 99.99%. How many more were severely damaged between the two storms? It's much larger than a small midwestern town. From Texas to Florida is massive obliteration.
The tornado that wiped out Zenia, Ohio was in 1974. 400 million dollars in damages, if I may quote you.
I'm not quite sure what 400 million translates in $$s from 1974 to 2006, but I'm guessing it's quite a bit.
All I'm saying, is that you folks who live in New Orleans, ASK WHERE ALL THE MONEY SENT TO YOUR CITY HAS GONE!
Asking why HAVEN'T the levies been rebuilt, which I would think would be the first step, after making sure the citizens of your city got out safely.
You start by maintaining and policing your levees everyday as if your life depended on it. Read the story of Hans Brinker.
That is an interesting take.
Thanks for the post.
Yes, it's no coincidence that every proposed safeguard--voter identification, e.g.--to prevent voter fraud is opposed by the Democrats. If voter fraud were prevented, they'd be thrown out of office.
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That's why they need new voters,
Illegals and felons will do fine.
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