Originally published October 9 2005
Government gains power in the wake of Katrina disaster
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
With over $200 billion being spent on rebuilding New Orleans, Bush and his allies are now adopting policies like public health, housing and job programs that would have previously been thought of as Democratic legacies.
President Bush is presiding over what is sure to be the most expensive government relief and reconstruction operation in U.S. history.
With estimates of the federal tab ranging up to $200 billion for rebuilding New Orleans and other storm-ravaged Gulf Coast cities, Bush and his Republican allies in Congress are casting aside budget discipline.
These include proposals for school vouchers for storm-displaced children, more federal support for "faith-based" organizations engaged in hurricane relief, as well as business-friendly "enterprise zone" tax credits for enterprises that rebuild in stricken areas and eased environmental and labor-protection requirements.
"It is inexcusable for the White House and Congress to not even make the effort to find at least some offsets to this new spending," said Sen.
Government failures at the federal, state and local levels are being widely blamed for the anarchy and loss of life in the early days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29.
Government spending on Katrina has already dwarfed the $15.5 billion total from all levels of government spent on the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake, $14 billion spent on last year's Florida hurricanes and $10.8 billion spent on Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Other lawmakers have called for a domestic version of the Marshall Plan that helped revive Europe after World War II, or something akin to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Work Projects Administration, which put millions of unemployed people to work _ mainly on road, bridge and dam projects _ during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated 400,000 jobs were lost in the hurricane.
"I don't want anyone outside of New Orleans telling us how to plan this city," said New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who announced Thursday that large parts of the city will open next week and the storied French Quarter the week after that.
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