As a number of pundits have pointed out, President Bush's proclamations in New Orleans on the night of Sept. 15 were reminiscent of past presidents Lyndon Johnson or Franklin Roosevelt.
So, what are the odds that the people of New Orleans will see the president's manna-from-heaven promise fulfilled? The political analysts in the media will bisect this in as many different ways as there are people to dissect it. Personally, I think the odds are very long.
I wish this president instilled more confidence in me than he does, but his performance, and his priorities in the first five years in office, have been anything but LBJ-war-on-poverty like. I'm more inclined to view Bush's speech as a political gambit to repair the damage the administration's complacency has brought down on the heads of the citizens in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in the aftermath of one of the worst hurricanes in our history.
It looks like the beginning of the long march to the next presidential campaign.
The Republicans have been quick to point out that they won't raise taxes - in other words, they aren't going to rescind the obscene tax breaks given to the wealthiest people and corporations in the nation in order to pay for this restoration. They claim such a move would hurt economic growth.
They are already making speeches about the need to cut government spending in order to pay the $200-billion-plus price tag for setting New Orleans and the rest of the stricken area right.
Obviously, they can't cut military spending with the quagmire in Iraq sucking up money like a vacuum cleaner the size of the Capitol Building, and they aren't going to ask Haliburton, GE, Chevron Texaco or any of their other fat-cat supporters and financial backers to foot the bill. So guess who gets the tab on this one?
Yup - you got it. It will be those least able to afford it, the poor and the elderly, and the struggling middle-class. Let's see, there's welfare, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veteran's benefits, environmental protections and, of course, aid to states for mass transit, roads, etc.
There are plenty of areas to cut spending, if you're a conservative who hates government programs that benefit the little guy.
If all that isn't bad enough, the whole thing is DOA - dead on arrival. All the grandiose statements Bush made in that speech will have to become real programs in a Republican-controlled Congress. Of course, Bill Frist in the Senate and Dennis Hastert in the House will have no problem finding programs benefiting all Americans that can be cut even further in order to protect those tax cuts.
On the Democratic side of aisle, the progressives will rise up and block further cuts in programs that help the poor and elderly, setting themselves up to be labeled as obstructionists.
The Democrats also will be accused of preventing the victims of Katrina from getting the help they need - exactly what the Republicans know will happen. They are currently much better at manipulating public opinion than the Democrats.
The Democrats will rail about the cuts, and the Republicans will rail about the Democrats, and nothing will get done. Neither side, except for a few individuals who are true humanitarians, give a damn about anything except increasing their power in the government at the next election.
Somewhere, probably in the latter half of 2006, they'll hammer out a compromise, which is another way of saying they'll screw both the victims of the hurricane, along with the middle- and lower-income taxpayers around the country, so that both parties will be able to claim that they are the champions of restoring the damage done in the affected states.
Do I think the President's speech on Sept. 15 was contrived to set this process in motion? You bet I do. I've been around too long, and have seen too much of politics - and especially this administration - to believe for one second that George W. Bush, a man who has devoted his first term to dismantling aid programs and environmental protections, has had some sort of epiphany and is now the great unifier and champion of the downtrodden.
Mike Davis lives in Magnolia. You can write him at mageditor@nwlink.com.[[In-content Ad]]
