Bush: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

I want to start this post by doing something I have never done before: congratulate George Bush for finally taking responsibility for something, in this case, the horrid federal "response" to the disaster in New Orleans. While I don't believe him to really be very much at fault for this, he did gut FEMA's funding and shift emphasis to anti-terrorist activities while neglecting natural disasters, and he did appoint people who have no idea what they are doing but are good Republicans. But he has dodged so many bullets its good to finally see him get hit for something.

However, since then, he has been back to his old ways. He came out Thursday night during his speech and declared that New Orleans would be rebuilt, at taxpayer expense - all fine and good I guess (though I would prefer not to repeat that disaster). What infuriates me is how he proposes to pay for it. End the war? No. Raise taxes? No. Reinstate the Estate Tax? No. Instead, he wants to cut funding from other federal programs (watch which ones get axed - not defense or farm subsidies, but education and welfare and the like) and continue to borrow money to rack up the federal deficit.

What is just as bad is that these cuts will affect those most hurt by the hurricane - the poor. Instead of "take from the rich, give to the poor" it has become "take from the poor and give to a different poor". The whole programs will be forgotten in six months, so that the Republicans will be able to rationalize cutting funding for social programs, give a small amount to New Orleans, and then cut funding for the rebuilding project once the fickle American public has changed the channel, and reap the excess money to pay for bigger and better guns.