(Not) Making Waves: Katrina, Bush, Obama, and BP

Hurrican Katrina before impact.

On August 29, 2005 hurricane Katrina hit and a disaster that was waiting to happen, did.  The Federal government was responsible for the chaotic response but, to be fair Louisiana’s governor, New Orleans’ mayor, and the citizens of New Orleans all shared in the blame.  As happens with most tragedies, one or two people end up getting blamed despite how complex a situation is… in the case of hurricane Katrina Michael Brown, head of FEMA, and George W. Bush, president of the U.S., took the rap.  Entire books could be written about the lashing those two men took in the press by celebrities, politicians, and many others.  Fairly or not, hurricane Katrina was tied to President Bush and the idea that he was an incompetent boob.

Since 2005, politicians from Nancy Pelosi to Harry Reid to the Congressional Black Caucus have not wasted a moment hurling invectives at then-President George W. Bush were he to even consider not funding a project in or for New Orleans.

Isn’t it strange how times change when you go from a Republican in the Executive Office to a Democrat?  It has been over 5 years since hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans a recent report from says of the progress made there:

But many recovery trends have slowed or stagnated in the past year as tens of thousands of blighted properties, lack of affordable housing for essential service and construction workers, and thin public services continue to plague the city and region.

Furthermore, in January 2009 the most recent comments on New Orleans are:

Yet, storm damage remains widespread, potential destruction from new storms looms large, and state and local leaders must simultaneously confront the opportunities and challenges presented by Washington’s economic recovery efforts and the potential sunsetting of the federal Office of Gulf Coast Recovery.

Out of the $838 billion “stimulus” bill President Obama signed recently, how much money was allocated towards rebuilding New Orleans..?  Don’t think too long about this because the answer is $0.  Now let us consider what is usually the rejoinder by the media and Congressional Democrats when cutting funding to New Orleans is a possibility is swift and harsh but, with a Democrat in the White House the silence is deafening.

New Orleans' 9th Ward in December of 2008

So it is not as if New Orleans has been rebuilt and there are not further challenges to be met.  While the unemployment rate for the city is below the national average, as recently as the Summer of 2008:

Democrats accused Bush of putting Iraq before New Orleans when he sought to block Gulf Coast reconstruction money from a $162 billion war spending bill. Bush was pilloried for not mentioning the disaster in back-to-back State of the Union addresses.

While the state of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama can use some of the money they are granted in the stimulus for hurricane Katrina-related spending, doing so would take away from other projects they might want to fund, an issue that the rest of the governors do not have to face.

The argument is being made that direct funding in the stimulus wasn’t needed because there’s still money that hasn’t been spent but:

Ironically, Bush made similar arguments in recent years as Gulf advocates latched onto nearly any legislation they could find to pursue reconstruction money. For example, he routinely argued that Katrina funding didn’t belong in war spending bills and that new funding wasn’t urgent because unspent billions were already in the pipeline.

A recent poll of who handled a Gulf Coast disaster better (Bush/Katrina or Obama/BP) guess who scored higher?  That’s right… Bush:

Former President George W. Bush showed more leadership in dealing with the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina than President Obama has shown in handling the oil calamity in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a poll of Louisianans released Friday.

By contrast, those polled said that Bush’s leadership on Katrina was better than Obama’s on the spill. A majority,  54%, said that Bush did the better job of helping Louisiana through the hurricane crisis compared to the 33% who chose Obama, PPP said on Friday.

Any person with commonsense can see that a double standard is being applied here because the Democrats are in charge of Congress and the White House.  While President Obama isn’t “tainted” by hurricane Katrina because he was not running the show when it happened, the press is giving the issue a pass because of their bias towards Democrats even after the BP oil spill.

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