August 29, 2006
Is New Orleans America's Baghdad?Hurricane Katrina was not the most catastrophic storm to hit the U.S., but the flooding caused by the levee breaches is what turned it into the calamity it became. Certainly, the residents of New Orleans were not provided critical aid in an expedited fashion (which only came when the Pentagon took over). Amid all the finger-pointing at federal officials, incompetent and corrupt state and city officials seem to be getting off the hook. Meanwhile, those local politicians are doing quite well at the expense of American taxpayers as well as the victims of the flooding.
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.Like Baghdad, the reconstruction of New Orleans is hampered by corruption and mismanagement. Like Baghdad, political leadership is chosen largely along sectarian lines. The obvious difference is the level of violence since Islam today has more of a predilection for it, though New Orleans remains one of the most violent cities in America. In order to break this cycle, voters would have to reject politics as usual in the Big Easy. With Ray Nagin's re-election as mayor, it looks like that will be hard to do.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...
The post-Katrina spend-fest in Louisiana will be remembered as one of the greatest taxpayer wastes in U.S. history. First came the FEMA $2,000 debit-cards fiasco intended to pay for necessities that were used for things like flat-panel TVs and tattoos. Then came the purchase of thousands of mobile homes that cost as much as $400,000 per family housed; the $200 million for renting the Carnival Cruise Ship; millions more in payments that went for season football tickets, luxury vacation resorts, even divorce lawyers. Federal flood insurance policies surely will encourage many to rebuild in the same flood plains and at the same height as before...
In truth, New Orleans was America's shame long before Katrina. In large part the residents of the Big Easy were victims of the predatory behavior of their own politicians. Louisiana already ranked among the bottom five of all the states in crime, poverty, health care and school performance; the murder rate in New Orleans today is 10 times the national average.
Posted by Jonathan R. on August 29, 2006 09:00 AM
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