lundi 29 août 2005

Just something to think about when Bush starts mouthing platitudes about cleanup


Captain Chickenshit may be traveling as far away from hurricane-stricken New Orleans as far as far as his widdle cycling weggies can cawwy him, but we all know thaty when it's all over, Unka Karl will find him someplace appropriately devastated, and a couple of appropriately white, fertile, Republican candidates for Extreme Makeover: White House Largesse Edition with whom to pose as he boasts about the couple million he's making available for storm cleanup.

But let's not forget how he and his Republican lackeys in the House slipped New Orleans the shiv last June:

In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding.

It would be the largest single-year funding loss ever for the New Orleans district, Corps officials said.

I've been here over 30 years and I've never seen this level of reduction, said Al Naomi, project manager for the New Orleans district. I think part of the problem is it's not so much the reduction, it's the drastic reduction in one fiscal year. It's the immediacy of the reduction that I think is the hardest thing to adapt to.

There is an economic ripple effect, too. The cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.

[snip]

One of the hardest-hit areas of the New Orleans district's budget is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes. SELA's budget is being drained from $36.5 million awarded in 2005 to $10.4 million suggested for 2006 by the House of Representatives and the president.


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