September 01, 2005

Pork and Katrina

I have mostly avoided a "blame game" for the Katrina disaster. In hindsight, it seems clear that the Federal, State and City officials should have done more to prevent the ongoing chaos/anarchy that is New Orleans. How that blame should be distributed (my own take is that big, major, predictable disasters like hurricanes are more of a Federal issue than a state, but we can have that fight later) can wait for later. However, an Associated Press Editorial (it can't really be called "news") does put some things into perspective:

Just last year, the Army Corps of Engineers sought $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans. The White House slashed the request to about $40 million. Congress finally approved $42.2 million, less than half of the agency's request.
Yet the lawmakers and Bush agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-laden highway bill that included more than 6,000 pet projects for lawmakers. Congress spent money on dust control for Arkansas roads, a warehouse on the Erie Canal and a $231 million bridge to a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.
How could Washington spend $231 million on a bridge to nowhere -- and not find $42 million for hurricane and flood projects in New Orleans? It's a matter of power and politics.

Pork barrel politics is everywhere. It isn't exclusive to the Federal level, so the blame shouldn't reside only with Congress. Yet, clearly, it has costs. Don Young (R-Alaska) doesn't really need a $231 million dollar bridge as much as the people of New Orleans need less than a quarter of that sum to repair the levees that protect(ed) their town (I realize that the $231 million, which was only passed a month or so ago, wouldn't have mattered to fix the levees before Katrina arrived: it's the principle, here, not the facts). Imagine how much more secure, more protected, better prepared and ready we would be for both natural and man-made disasters if Congress really spent our tax dollars wisely.

The political point finished, I find it unbelievably depresssing to watch the news coverage of the unfolding catastrophe that is New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. September 11th was a short, quick shock with long-term consequences. The damage happened in a few hours. Katrina's effects on New Orleans are a heart-breaking slow-motion epic disaster. It's much harder to watch. Blame comes later. Give money today.

Posted by baltar at September 1, 2005 09:43 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Natural Disasters


Comments

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." George W. Bush

No one other than the nine million people who read National Geographic as well as anyone who read the New Orleans newspapers.

They knew.

Posted by: binky at September 1, 2005 10:20 PM | PERMALINK

If anyone is interested in following the blogging community's attempt at news out of New Orleans, you can start here. This is a "clearing house" page that provides links to real-time IRC channels, real-time MP3 feels of the police/National Guard/Emergency radio feeds, and blogs that are still operating from New Orleans. The info you get is very raw (and inaccurate a good percentage of the time), but it is interesting.

Posted by: baltar at September 1, 2005 10:23 PM | PERMALINK
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