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Katrina, cronyism and incompetence Colleen Redman peers behind Bush's botched response to Hurricane Katrina “The aftermath of Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history.” – Louisiana official, Aaron Broussard as he broke down while being interviewed by Tim Russert. Everyone seems to agree that the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina was shameful; they just don’t agree on who was to blame for it. During the first two weeks after the hurricane, Americans were encouraged not to play “the blame game” by the Bush administration and others, but if we don’t pointedly address what went wrong, how can we expect to prevent another such failure? Two days before the hurricane, the White House declared a Federal State of Emergency in Louisiana, as requested by Governor Kathleen Blanco. Part of the statement posted on the White House website reads: “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.” Considering that, coupled with the magnitude of the storm, and the fact that the Louisiana National Guard was already stretched by the deployment of more than 3,000 troops to Iraq, it’s understandable that Louisiana officials expected more of an immediate physical response from the federal government. In the crucial two days following Hurricane Katrina, when it would have mattered most, President Bush failed to come forth to set the tone for the country. He, who had campaigned on his ability to protect Americans, neglected to act, even as state and local officials were repeatedly pleading for federal help. But the weakest link in the chain of the botched response to Katrina appears to be FEMA, as news story after news story revealed: The agency dispatched only 7 of its 28 urban search and rescue teams to the area before the storm hit and sent no workers at all into New Orleans until after the hurricane passed (New York Times) … Louisiana National Guard requests 700 buses from FEMA for evacuations: FEMA sends only 100 (Boston Globe) … FEMA head finally requests that DHS dispatch 1,000 employees to the region, gives them two days to arrive (Associated Press). The inadequacies of FEMA can be traced back to President Bush who undermined the progress it made under President Clinton by appointing a political crony with no emergency management experience to lead it, and then privatizing parts of it. In May of 2001, Bush’s FEMA appointee, Joe Allbaugh, suggested to Congress that FEMA had evolved into “an oversized entitlement program.” When Allbaugh resigned to pursue corporate opportunities in Iraq, he left his even less qualified college roommate, Michael Brown, in his place. Folding FEMA into Homeland Security further weakened it. No guidelines were provided for how Homeland Security would pick up the slack, or if they were provided, Homeland Security director, Michael Chertoff, didn’t seem to be aware of it. Far-right Republicans, like President Bush, have shown little interest in preventative programs that help people and solve problems, like the UN or FEMA. Their answer to everything seems to be privatization, which sets the stage for corporate cronyism and greed. The only government program they clearly support is the military. For years, Republicans complained about the Welfare Program, less than 1% of the federal budget, while spending for the military under their administrations skyrocketed and deficits rose to record levels. The outpouring of support that Americans have given to those in need has been a testimony to their generosity, but I don’t understand how so many continue to tolerate an administration that elects to invade another country with the intent to impose democracy, while at the same time it’s systematically eroding domestic programs designed to protect its own citizens. The Republican catch-phrase, “Get government off our backs,” sounds like a liberating ideal, but the reality is that the images of human suffering that followed Hurricane Katrina’s wrath is what smaller government can look like. Two weeks after Katrina, with his approval rating the lowest of his presidency, President Bush took the uncharacteristic step of admitting that the response to the disaster was a failure of government at all levels. He’s promised to study what went wrong, but it’s never a good idea for a likely suspect to investigate himself. In order for a study to have any meaning it must be an independent one. Of course, it shouldn’t take a large tax paid study to determine that the responsibility for recent emergency response failures lies largely with the Bush administration. Their agenda, like that of other far right administrations, aims to weaken social programs because they consider them to be too costly. The irony is that, especially in the case of Katrina, the government will spend more to make up for its grievous failings than it would have cost to prevent those failings by fully funding and supporting domestic programs already in place. Note: This article was published by JUST Response on September 21 2005. It first appeared on September 16 in Loose Leaf, where Colleen Redman writes daily, titled "Unprepared for Katrina: Is this what smaller government looks like? AKA Spending his way out of the doghouse" and is reproduced with the author's permission.
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