Is the Democratic Party keeping its powder dry re: New Orleans funding?

I expect the Republicans to let those in need suffer. The Democrats, on the other hand, have higher standards to meet. If the US has billions to finance its war crimes in Iraq, it has billions to finance the reconstruction of New Orleans.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/newo-d14.shtml

Three months after the Katrina disaster: New Orleans left for dead

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As the Times editorial points out, the cost of rebuilding the New Orleans levees, drainage canals and other defenses against a Category 5 hurricane would likely be in excess of $32 billion. While is it widely accepted that without such protections a future hurricane catastrophe is all but assured, there has been no clamoring from any section of the political establishment—Republican or Democrat—for this money to be allocated.

Instead, in the wake of Katrina, Congress is pushing through major cuts in federal programs for the poor combined with new tax cuts for the rich. Just before Thanksgiving, the House of Representatives approved $51 billion in budget cuts that will slash funds for programs like Medicare, food stamps and farm subsidies. Last week, it approved $95 billion in tax cuts, including a two-year extension of Bush’s 2001 tax cut for stock dividends and capital gains—a provision that will overwhelmingly benefit the richest 10 percent of the population.

The price tag for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continues to increase, exceeding $300 billion. A government that has dragged the country into an illegal war—at a cost of nearly 2,150 American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives—continues to spend billions a month to crush Iraqi resistance to the US occupation, while the population of the Gulf Coast region is left to rot at the mercy of the “magic” of the capitalist market.

The abandonment of New Orleans means the death of a city that has made a unique cultural contribution to American life, particularly in the field of music. The birthplace of jazz has from its earliest days been a vibrant blend of cultures—French, Spanish, Caribbean, African. But this means next to nothing to the money-mad US ruling elite.

Some 100 years ago San Francisco was rebuilt from the rubble of the great earthquake. Thirty-five years prior to that, Chicago was resurrected after the catastrophic fire of 1871. But in the twenty-first century, the decay and parasitism of American capitalism are such that no similar effort is to be made to save New Orleans.

more...

do cookies get more stale or less stale as time passes?; that is the question.

is that when Bush got on TV in his blue chambray shirt and promised 100 billion to rebuild New Orleans, he had no intention of doing so. The idea was to make him look more gracious and kind, so that Rove's Tonya Harding knee-capping of the Democrats would be more effective. Ever notice how the Rove slime works better if W is perceived as being befuddled and nice? That's how you blame state and local for federal reluctance to help the needy.

and grounds for impeachment (along with all of the others) . . . why the Congress allows this administration to continue its illegal and immoral policies is beyond me, and an indictment of that institution -- Republicans and Democrats alike . . . the level of disgust I have for our federal government is beyond words . . .

Those useless fuckwits have allowed the entire country to be stolen by the Christo-fascists. Keeping their powder dry????

LMAO...here we have an issue/issues that play(s) right into Dem. STRENGTH and they sit on their hands.

Seems like an awful easy point scorer for an Opposition Party.

lead and she's not, should pound the table and she's not.

Reid needs to start popping off on all of these issues. He'd have some nice things to say, short, crisp and to the point!