Once again Donna Brazile has a column in the Washington Times (#3 Zen) and she talks about the recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and her families hometown of New Orleans. Brazile talks about how the President came to New Orleans for just another “photo op” and then continues to talk about her families efforts to repair their house with no help from the President.
“It has becoming abundantly clear that the president's visit is just another photo op meant to convey he's still with us -- without making a significant commitment to help with recovery. In fact, while attending an event in Mississippi, the president said: "The federal government's role has been to write checks. The governor's role and the mayor's role is to help expedite the federal money to the local folks."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20070304-094010-7577r.htm
Again Donna Brazile takes the usual cheap shot that she is known for and turns it “Political” at every opportunity. We expect it for she was the Campaign manager for Al Gore and has been bitter at every opportunity since then and continues to push the “Liberal Spin” whenever possible. It’s just amazing that she is allowed to have a weekly column in a Newspaper like the Washington Times which has been compared to FoxNews with their “Obvious Rightwing” support as many from the Left have observed…(Sarcasm)
Brazile goes on to state that if the President really cared about the people in “Her Town” he would eliminate the 10% matching fee required by law.
“Just recently, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, asked that the administration amend the Stafford Act to waive the 10 percent match of federal funds the state is required to repay.”
Now after Brazile brings up the request made by Reid to eliminate the 10% fee, which has been waived in the past for other major disasters, Brazile falls back to her usual “Attack the President” whenever possible and ties those evil corporations if possible with: “In the correspondence, Mr. Reid reminded the president that, "Since 1985, FEMA has granted waivers of state match for public assistance in 32 different disasters." Despite having suffered two of the worst hurricanes in U.S. history, Louisiana is still asked to meet the match requirement. So why not grant us the waiver and free some of the funds that would otherwise go to Iraq contractors like Halliburton?”
Brazile goes on to describe how her family has started to rebuild the families house in New Orleans without waiting for the Government funds promised by the President.
“Like many others who have returned, my Uncle Nat, brother Johnny and other relatives have all been hard at work preparing to tear down the molded ceilings and replace the roof. They decided to rebuild -- with or without federal assistance. After all, it's their home. Soon, my Uncle Douglas and brother Floyd will come back from Georgia, and at least half of my family will be reunited and sitting on the porch with something cold to drink.”
This is commendable and stories of people jumping right in and doing for themselves instead of waiting for the government to do everything for them
have been reported from all over the Gulf coast after the Katrina disaster. Unfortunately it seems to be a large portion of New Orleans residents who chose rather to depend on the government for things to get done instead of doing it themselves. The problem is that Brazile fails to note that which has been provided in relief to the area and where some of that money is tied up.
The President stated:
Just so you know, of the $110 billion, $86 billion of that has been obligated -- in other words, it's out the door. But only $53 billion has been spent. And so part of the day today we talked about if the money is out the door in Washington, where is it and how come it hasn't been out farther? And that's one of the things that we're going to continue to work on, to make sure that obligated money ends up in somebody's pocket.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070301-13.html
Maybe Brazile should take a look at her local and state elected Democrat representatives and ask why\where this money has gone? But instead she continues to attack the President and his administration whenever possible instead of looking at what has been provided by the government, and the private sector, and how that money has been squandered.
A few weeks back I did a post on the corruption of the relief money provided to those in New Orleans by the government and the incredible amount of private donations from the American people. In this post there are numerous examples of fraud and outright theft of funds provided to those effected by the hurricanes. A large concentration of this fraud is focused and comes from New Orleans and it’s residents and needs to be addressed. I, like many private citizens, opened our wallets and made donations only to hear how some of this money was spent on frivolous items and abused by those now waiting for more aid from the government.
http://rightsideva.blogspot.com/2007/02/super-bowl-of-blame-games.html
WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Fraud involving payments supposed to help victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita likely exceeds earlier estimates of $1 billion and only a tiny fraction of the money has been recovered, according to a U.S. government report released on Wednesday.”
The GAO cited incidents in which FEMA gave $17 million in housing assistance to individuals who had already obtained free housing in the form of trailers or apartments and $20 million that went to people who improperly claimed for help for both storms that ravaged the U.S. Gulf Coast area.”
We must help those who need our help for that is the right thing to do. But we should also hold those responsible who abuse the government, and private,
Aid . We, as well as Brazile, should also ask those elected representatives like Mayor Ray Nagin, Governor Blanco, and Senator Landy, where and why the funds provided have gone and why the delay?
All three of these elected representatives are of Brazile’s Democratic party so don’t look for her to be asking those questions in her next column to the Washington Times…
2 comments:
The Staffod Act is the law that states that localities will have to pay 10% to 25% of the cost of disaste aid. This has been waived in over the last 30 disasters aid has been given UNTIL Katrina. I am a Republican citizen of Louisiana and I have been made to feel that I am not REALLY a citizen of this country. "How dare we ask for help. How greedy of you!" I see the devastation. We are never going to get any help. Please have the human decency to stop whining about all this aid that will never be seen by the people that need it. This includes Mississippi. My 80 year old mother lives in Pass Christian, Ms. Mississippi has had the SAME poblems as Louisiana. Weed filled vacant lots instead of vacant gutted homes. That is the only difference.
Anonymous,
I understand your disapointment and I have lived in the Florida Keys and dealt with a Cat 3 hurricane. I lost little actual property but was out of work (Sportfishing Captain\Mate) for six weeks. What I did see were those who picked themselves up and took care of them selves as compared to some who waited and demanded the government took care of them. Some did not have the means to take care of themselves and those are the ones we should help and that is not in debate.
Donna Brazile is a Liberal Democrat who continues to pitch oneside of the issue and throw as much mud at the President as possible when possible. She highlighted the 10% issue but yet ignored the corruption that happened and continues to happen in N.O. Plenty of private citizens donated money only to see much of it wasted and abused. I regret that I sent checks to The Red Cross only to find a high level of corruption there also. I now know that the Salvation Army is a much better and active onsight service and gets my checks now. There is also a book "The Politics of Disaster" which goes into this in depth and the most efficient and caring by far was the Church groups that responded.
Many people still care about helping those who need help and are willing to make the effort to get back on their feet. Unfortunately many of us feel the disapointment you feel when we see our aid and the Governments aid wasted and abused.
And why did Ray Nagin get re-elected when he failed as much as he did during\after the Katrina incident? Governor Blanco was urged to mobilize the National Guard before the storm but refused...
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