In Defense of Our President
OK, for 30 seconds I am going to take the other side. Josh Marshall is shocked, shocked that the party in power would favor its cronies in the Louisiana reconstruction.
Oh my God, there's money involved, and patronage! If LBJ or Clinton were running the country I'm sure that the entire effort would be bid out in totally objective fashion to contractors with absolutely no political affiliation. Come on.
Another thing. People don't like Bush (see below). I don't like Bush. But let's recognize him for what he is - based on his speech last night, he is the greatest domestic-spending Keynesian president since FDR. He's saying: we'll rebuild it better, on Uncle Sam's nickel, and it will be good. We'll spend more on this than the Iraq War. We'll put special effort into job training and decent housing for poor folks (who cares if that last bit is true, this is politics).
The Bull Moose notes, disapprovingly, that "we now have a Republican president selling guns and butter." Ignore him! You go W!
The "Gulf Opportunity Zone" they are going to create is vintage Democratic policy, a classic case of bad capital allocation to support political talking points. They want to encourage growth, which is fine. But it's dumb enough to build homes and industry in an environmentally fragile area that is prone to hurricanes and floods. But for the Federal government to subsidize it...under a Republican administration...that is breathtaking, and right up there with the finest efforts of the Carter administration. Your tax dollars will finance ice cream stands built on flood plains - better ice cream stands than stood there before!
My hat's off to whomever wrote the speech, and to Bush for his conversion to Democratic ideology.
posted by Anonymous at 12:11 PM
1 Comments:
At the heart of this administration is a kind of non-conscious kleptocracy, dwarfing the ordinary and fairly survivable corruption that attends wonderful cities like New York, Chicago, and New Orleans.
I think for once we can credit the blistering, righteous, acidic criticism of the president for getting something useful to occur. But like the war, this Administration prevaricates so reflexively, almost indifferently, that none of their initiatives can be taken at face value, let alone be expected to suceed. That means the cost will likely balloon far out of what is necessary, and fail to benefit the needy with intelligent policy.
I believe that a nation cannot conduct the "right" war for the wrong reasons, or succeed in any massive national iniative if the motive for the policy is not genuine. This effort will live or die on how much Bush is made to instantly suffer for failure.
I do disagree about rebuilding New Orleans - the risks in that city, with proper design and maintenance, are substantial but manageable. If shift from 100 year planning to 1000 year planning, it should be a fair risk, certainly on par with any major West Coast city.
Which is not particularly comforting, I'll grant.
Don't ask what's going to happen to the East Coast if a mountain slides into the Atlantic.
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