What Would Nero Do?

Sadly, my assessment on the state of flooding in New Orleans was premature. Two major levees were breached, and the waters continue to pour into the Big Easy. The situation is what the governor of Louisiana described as "untenable". The pictures of carnage coming out of Louisiana and Mississippi are absolutely surreal, and it will be some time before the residents in the affected areas can return to a state of normalcy if, in fact, they ever can.

It might be tacky to bring up politics in reference to a disaster of such magnitude, but there is a lesson to be learned about decisions made and their consequences. I'm not going to blame the Bush administration for a hurricane happening. But it is fair to question whether Bush's policies kept the affected areas in the highest state of preparedness for such an event. According to this article, funding that the Army Corps of Engineers required for shoring up levees on the Louisiana coast was cut in 2003. Because of tax cuts and the war in Iraq, there wasn't enough money to spend on the most vital kind of homeland security.

Meanwhile, what was Bush doing on Monday as New Orleans was sinking? Playing golf, of course. After all, he's George Watch this drive Bush, and golf is a way to cure everything that ails his country. But he was kind enough to sacrifice two days from his five week vacation and go back to work. On Tuesday Bush spoke at a California Naval base for 40 minutes, and wedged somewhere into his comparisons of the war in Iraq with WWII (!), he devoted less than two minutes of his speech toward the hurricane and its aftermath. Now go back and read that E.L. Doctorow essay again.

It's hard to say right now what the damage from this storm will amount to in monetary terms, especially what won't be covered by insurance. But it will likely be considerably less than the cost of conducting the war in Iraq. If 300 billion dollars can be found to fight a war and reconstruct Iraq, surely the federal government can come up with a way to provide for reconstruction and assistance for its own people. There will be few complaints about the profiteering that will arise out of this venture.