The right wing has never grasped the idea of preventive maintainence
just short term profits.
Don't confuse it as a "failure"
It's what the Republicans promised us all along.
Sure, it looks like a colossal failure: bodies floating down the
flooded
streets of New Orleans; five full days before the Federal Emergency
Management Agency could get water and food to survivors of a
devastating
natural disaster; an all-out public relations campaign designed to fix
the
blame (rather than fix the problems) on anyone and everyone except the
stewardship of George WMD Bush. But as it turns out, there wasn't
much that
was "natural" about the disaster, and the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina
represents a resounding success of the Republican Party agenda.
At its core, the Republican philosophy opposes government. Its
all-but-sainted spiritual head, Ronald Reagan said it first and best
and
just the thought of his words send shivers of ecstasy up and down the
spines
of Republican Party faithful: "Government can't solve the problem," he
preached, "government is the problem."
Some of us apostates felt otherwise; that, perhaps, matters such as
emergency planning constitutes a legitimate responsibility of
government.
Alas, we were shouted down, out-voted, and over-ruled by the
Republican
Party. And, despite our protestations, the Republicans have spent the
past
quarter century or so systematically building toward the events of the
past
week or so.
The conscience (such as it is) of the Republican Party has long been
one
Grover Norquist who, when I interviewed him on the radio a few years
ago,
repeated his vision to "starve government so it was small enough to
drown in
a bathtub." Prophetic word, there, Grover: "drown." And with slim
majorities in the House and Senate, and with Bush in the White House,
Republicans have succeeded time and again at slashing taxes and
cutting back
on program after program, including FEMA.
After 9/11, the Republicans folded FEMA into 21 other agencies in a
new
Homeland Security Department, stripping it of the Cabinet-rank that
had
allowed it to report directly to the president. In a further
department
shuffle in July, FEMA lost its historic mission of working with state
and
local governments on preparedness plans before disaster strikes. FEMA
lost
people, money, power, and authority. In financial terms, it took a
bath.
One inherently corporation-friendly (and, so, intrinsically
Republican)
tactic is privatization: outsourcing the rightful duties of government
and
dealing out the spoils of politics to private industry. Early in
Bush's
first term, FEMA was designated as an agency that would be privatized,
downsized, and almost dismantled in the name of "homeland security."
In
June 2004, FEMA privatized its hurricane disaster plan for New
Orleans,
contracting the work to the lowest bidder: a Baton Rouge, La., firm
called
Innovative Emergency Management (IEM). One can safely assume despite
the
low bid, IEM executives have enough cash on hand to donate to the GOP.
Mike Parker, the former head of the Army Corps of Engineers, was
forced to
resign in 2002 after he clashed with Mitch Daniels, former director of
the
Office of Management and Budget, which sets the administration's
annual
budget goals
"One time I took two pieces of steel into Mitch Daniels' office,"
Parker
recalls. "They were exactly the same pieces of steel, except one had
been
under water in a Mississippi lock for 30 years, and the other was new.
The
first piece was completely corroded and falling apart because of a
lack of
funding. I said, 'Mitch, it doesn't matter if a terrorist blows the
lock up
or if it falls down because it disintegrates - either way it's the
same
effect, and if we let it fall down, we have only ourselves to blame.'
It
made no impact on him whatsoever." The Bush White House had other
priorities.
Business, for example. Pro-business Republicans boosted excessive
development of land surrounding New Orleans that historically acted as
a
protective barrier to storm surges and flooding. Land development
weakened
this natural protection. To justify their exploitation of Mississippi
River
delta marshlands, Republicans argued that supporting business leads to
jobs.
Today, however, there are no businesses left in New Orleans. Instead
there
are hundreds of thousands of unemployed people and the second-most
important
seaport in America is desolate, which not only will contribute to
higher
gasoline prices for you, but also higher prices of everything you
purchase
that's delivered by a truck. The Republicans wholeheartedly backed a
couple
of oil industry executives to run the Executive Branch of the United
States
Government. Oil companies are enjoying record profits and windfall
tax cuts
from the federal treasury.
Pork barrel dollars: "Bring 'em on!"
With all-but-unanimous support of Republicans, George WMD Bush
detoured from
his post-9/11 quest to bring Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan to
justice.
With avid GOP backing, National Guard troops were sent from their Gulf
Coast
communities (along with countless amphibious personnel carriers -
woefully
inappropriate materiel for a desert war) to conquer Iraq, which had
nothing
to do with the World Trade Center disaster.
Before Congress a couple of years ago, Condoleezza Rice contended, "I
don't
think anyone could have predicted that these people would take an
airplane
and slam it into the World Trade Center." Turns out, that precise
scenario
had been predicted. Then, this week, George WMD Bush said to Dianne
Sawyer
on ABC's "Good Morning America," I don't think anyone anticipated the
breech
of the levees." Turns out that, too, was foreseen.
It all has been.
The Republicans have been telling us their plans for years.
"Mission Accomplished," indeed.
