Yet, according to John Maginnis, Washington Republicans say the budget is too tight when it comes to the future of the "gret stet".
Securing top-level levee protection poses frustrations.... Last week, a delegation of the Louisiana Recovery Authority presented the state's priorities to senior White House officials. According to member Sean Reilly, the president's advisors agreed to support more money for business bridge loans, Medicaid reimbursements and tax incentives for businesses and individuals.
But the Louisiana team hit a wall--a large earthen wall--on its top priority of rebuilding the southeast Louisiana hurricane protection levee system to withstand a Category 5 storm. The Bush team would not commit beyond the Category 3 level.
...
A top tier levee system from New Orleans to Morgan City would take years and $20 billion to build, far more than the Bush administration and conservatives in Congress are prepared to go. But to tell homeowners and business investors pondering their future in New Orleans that the levees will protect them from almost all storms might not inspire the confidence it takes to bring the area all the way back.
Reilly says the recovery authority will "keep pounding" on the Category 5 issue, but that might start to feel like one's head against the wall of Washington's intransigence.
These so-called conservatives didn't fret when a $500 billion dollar Medicare bill ballooned (immediately) to $750 plus billion. But now they want to deny Louisiana $20 billion for levees.
These so-called conservatives hardly peeped as expenses in Iraq grew into the hundreds of billions with no end in sight. By February U.S. taxpayers will have spent another $20 billion towards nation-building in Iraq. But allocating that same amount for a devastated Louisiana is suddenly too expensive.
American lives were sacrificed so that Iraqi Shia can enjoy their restored wetlands; but, when a thousand Americans die in the aftermath of Katrina, that's not enough incentive for Washington Republicans to adequately protect South Louisiana.
The president and the so-called conservatives in Congress have broken faith with our state. Previously, these reckless spendthrifts made Lyndon Johnson look like Calvin Coolidge. Twenty billion was nothing to them; a rounding error. But now it's everything to us, and they won't pay it. Our survival depends on Cat 5 levees, but Bushco suddenly can't commit to essential protections for South Louisiana.
A filthier batch of dog vulvae you'll never see.
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