President Bush's Pledge to Rebuild New Orleans

Nickie Goomba may not agree with what I'm going to say here, but then again he may surprise me.

Like everyone, I've been following the still-unfolding story about New Orleans following hurricaine Katrina. I haven't posted anything yet because everything I would say has already been said somehwhere else. I think it's time to speak now.

The first thing I've got to say is that all levels of government could have done a better job. They could have done a better job of preparing, they could have done a better job of coordinating, and they could have done a better job of evacuating people. What's done is done though, and I'm not going to dwell on the past. What I am going to do is talk about how President Bush reacted, and what he's doing to rebuild New Orleans.

Some people question the logic of rebuilding New Orleans. While I see their point, I disagree with their conclusion. There's a lot of history in New Orleans, and scrapping the entire city because of of the mere possibility that this could happen again would mean turning our backs on the history and culture that New Orleans has brought to our fine country. With the tools, knowledge, manpower, and technology available to us, I believe that we can rebuild New Orleans, and install enough safeguards to adequately mitigate the risks involved with rebuilding.

That said though, I'm not at all pleased with how President Bush has handled the situation. For years, the President has said that he doesn't focus on polls, that he does what he thinks is right, and that a leader doesn't follow polls -- he leads. I agree that's what a president should do, but that's not what happened this time. For days, he sat on the sidelines, and didn't take responsibility until days after the press made it painfully obvious that taking responsibility is exactly what the public wanted him to do. (Of course as soon as he did that, the state and local politicians quickly followed suit, because it became the popular thing to do.) I will give him credit for admitting to the mistake, but he could and should have done so sooner.

Next, he began throwing money at the problem. I realize that we're going to have to shell out big bucks for the rebuilding, but the way that Bush is going about it is horribly irresponsible. He's absolutely refusing to raise taxes, and has skirted the issue of spending cuts. Why? Well, the answer is simple. He's only got three years left in his presidency. He's just going to hand the problem off to his successor. The American public has told President Bush that rebuilding New Orleans is his problem, so he will make sure that we know he's taking steps to do as we wish. Paying for it, on the other hand, is something he's not going to touch.

Mr. Bush, please listen to me on this one. I believe that we should rebuild New Orleans. But we've got to be responsible about it. Indiscriminately throwing money at the problem, without finding a way to pay for it, is not a solution. You're merely substituting one problem for another and postponing the pain.