Is this Bush's fault too?

[LorrieGrace]

ScottJ:

Same story... same answer. If the problem was known and local officials did nothing to correct it then they shouldn't be pointing the finger at Bush now.... at least he did something... while they apparently did virtually nothing except wait on the Feds to fix everything for them and whine.

It is a shame that the local government didn't have money for levess or getting people evacuated, but they have money to let their officers, which I know worked in very stressful situations, take off for a needed vacation. After ONE week.

Once again, he is letting the federal government do the job there. It just seems insane to me!

I don't remember hearing about those police/firemen working during the 9/11 tragedy doing this. But then again, the mayor said that NO was a party town, and we just need to get over it.

 

[StraightAndNarrow]

Originally posted by Joseph_Botwinick:
The lack of planning for the hurricane was the local government's fault. I understand the federal government was in charge (correct me if I am wrong on this) of building a levee strong enough to withstand a level 3 when they knew a level 4 or 5 was going to come. That was their fault. Once we figured out that NO wasn't prepared, and folks were sleeping on bridges and drowning in the water for 4 to 5 days, the lack of response was the federal government's fault. There is plenty of blame to go around. DEMS need to not make this a political issue too quickly as they certainly bear some blame. On the other hand, Republicans need to stop defending the indefensible and being defensive of the president when even he admits the response was not adequate. The bottom line for me is that we can take care of folks all over the world in their time of need, but when it is our own, we dropped the ball. As a Bush supporter, I am not going to defend that just because he is my guy.

Joseph Botwinick

The local people planned to build levees strong enough for a level 5 hurricane but when Buh significantly cut the New Orleans area Army Core of Engineers budget they didn't have enough money to do that and ended up with levees that failed.

 

[OldRegular]

Originally posted by prophecynut:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />
Just as serious, the President’s priorities, his indifference to questions of infrastructure and the environment, magnified an already complicated disaster. In an era of tax cuts for the wealthy, Bush consistently slashed the Army Corps of Engineers’ funding requests to improve the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain. This year, he asked for $3.9 million, $23 million less than the Corps requested. In the end, Bush reluctantly agreed to $5.7 million, delaying seven contracts, including one to enlarge the New Orleans levees. Former Republican congressman Michael Parker was forced out as the head of the Corps by Bush in 2002 when he dared to protest the lack of proper funding.

Similarly, the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which is supposed to improve drainage and pumping systems in the New Orleans area, recently asked for $62.5 million; the White House proposed $10.5 million. Former Louisiana Senator John Breaux, a pro-Bush Democrat, said, “All of us said, ‘Look, build it or you’re going to have all of Jefferson Parish under water.’ And they didn’t, and now all of Jefferson Parish is under water.”

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/050912ta_talk_remnick </font>[/QUOTE]Democrats, and some former government engineers, blamed President Bush for cutting the budget for the Army Corps of Engineers , claiming the cuts left New Orleans unprepared for a major storm.

But The Washington Post reports the Bush administration has granted the corps more funding than the previous administration over a similar period and that Louisiana has received far more money for civil works projects than any other state. The paper says much of the funding has been spent not on flood control, but on lawmakers' pet construction projects, including a brand new $750 million canal lock in New Orleans unrelated to flood control.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168846,00.html

Both the New Yorker and the Washington Post are anti Bush. It appears the Washington Post has more integrity.

 

[riverm]

I’ve heard from some folks down in Southern Louisiana, that back in 1971 the city of New Orleans had a choice to; either spend money upgrading the levees or to build a Super-dome for the Saints football team.

Speaking of the Super-dome, it’s amazing how destructive those refugees (whoops) “evacuees” where to the dome in the four days they spent there.