Federalism and Katrina
I'm getting frustrated with my old keyboard, so I'm not going to write a long rant about this. Basically, a few people want to blame President Bush for Hurricane Katrina, citing global warming and Kyoto and a bunch of pseudo-scientific nonsense. Others want to blame President Bush for the aftermath, claiming that FEMA has screwed the pooch, and that the turmoil and chaos is entirely the fault of the feds.
I have to side with Aaron's views on this one, and disagree with Lee's. Aaron makes the correct point, a point that I made over at The Problem: the responsibility of New Orleans is Mayor Nagin, and the responsibility of Louisiana is Governor Blanco. The responsibility of the Federal Government is to provide these two individuals with the resources they need, when those resources are requested. From what I hear, Governor Blanco still hasn't formally requested Federal assistance, and her grievous mismanagement and incompetence is being well documented throughout the blogosphere (Aaron's done some great posts on that subject).
Am I saying that FEMA's response has been perfect? No, I'm sure it hasn't been, and there are some obvious problems that even I have heard about at this point. The thing that bugs me the most about what Lee has to say, though, is that he essentially denounces Federalism. Have a look:
For those of you who don't read Right Thinking regularly, Lee basically gets a boner every time he says words like "libertarian" and "federalism" and "small government". Now he's basically acting like the the Federal Government is the answer to this problem? FEMA is the designated savior of the Gulf Coast? Sorry, but it seems pretty hypocritical to me, considering that Lee's vision of a utopian society would probably put the responsibility for picking up after natural disasters solely on state and local governments. If it were up to Lee, we'd be paying a tax rate low enough to cripple FEMA, and there would be enough fiscal accountability to prevent the massive relief spending bill that Congress pushed through late last week.
Basically, I don't fault Lee for his frustration, or for his political and economic ideals; I share all three. However, I think that Lee's done a poor job of reconciling these. That's all I'm going to say on that part of the issue, because resident vixen Manda has frequently, and correctly, pointed out that when I harp on what Lee says, it makes me look like a petty wanker who's trying to make a name for myself by stepping on his coat tails. That's not my intention, so for this particular subject, I'll conclude by saying "Thus saith the Fly."
A big part of the problem is that New Orleans in particular is one of the most corrupt cities in the country, and Louisiana is one of the more corrupt states. I remember learning when I was in New Orleans about six years ago that there are murders and disappearances in New Orleans that just plain go unsolved. It's also apparent that there are issues that should fall under the purview of the Louisiana and New Orleans government agencies, and that should be paid for by Louisiana and New Orleans money, that have been taken care of by the federal budget and federal officials for quite a while. It sounds to me like it was a case of the insane running the asylum, and it's caused irreparable damage and thousands of deaths.
I guess my ultimate contention is this: due to obvious corruption and now-obvious incompetence on the part of Louisiana and New Orleans officials, the initial response to Hurricane Katrina was a dismal failure, and I believe that initial failure to have directly contributed to the continued difficulties and failures in the later relief efforts. Was FEMA unprepared? Maybe; but I think the problems that FEMA has been tasked with addressing are much worse because of the pre-Katrina game of political grabass perpetuated by Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin, and I don't see how that has anything to do with President Bush.
I have to side with Aaron's views on this one, and disagree with Lee's. Aaron makes the correct point, a point that I made over at The Problem: the responsibility of New Orleans is Mayor Nagin, and the responsibility of Louisiana is Governor Blanco. The responsibility of the Federal Government is to provide these two individuals with the resources they need, when those resources are requested. From what I hear, Governor Blanco still hasn't formally requested Federal assistance, and her grievous mismanagement and incompetence is being well documented throughout the blogosphere (Aaron's done some great posts on that subject).
Am I saying that FEMA's response has been perfect? No, I'm sure it hasn't been, and there are some obvious problems that even I have heard about at this point. The thing that bugs me the most about what Lee has to say, though, is that he essentially denounces Federalism. Have a look:
But keep on shoving your heads in the sand. FEMA worked perfectly, it was all the fault of them durn liberals. And when al Qaeda launches a nuclear or biological attack somewhere in the United States, and the Arabian Horse Master™ is the one sending relief to save you and your family, then you can discuss the fine points of federalism and states’ rights with me. And when it’s your child floating down the river with carrion birds eating his flesh, you can tell me just what a bang-up good job your government did for you.
For those of you who don't read Right Thinking regularly, Lee basically gets a boner every time he says words like "libertarian" and "federalism" and "small government". Now he's basically acting like the the Federal Government is the answer to this problem? FEMA is the designated savior of the Gulf Coast? Sorry, but it seems pretty hypocritical to me, considering that Lee's vision of a utopian society would probably put the responsibility for picking up after natural disasters solely on state and local governments. If it were up to Lee, we'd be paying a tax rate low enough to cripple FEMA, and there would be enough fiscal accountability to prevent the massive relief spending bill that Congress pushed through late last week.
Basically, I don't fault Lee for his frustration, or for his political and economic ideals; I share all three. However, I think that Lee's done a poor job of reconciling these. That's all I'm going to say on that part of the issue, because resident vixen Manda has frequently, and correctly, pointed out that when I harp on what Lee says, it makes me look like a petty wanker who's trying to make a name for myself by stepping on his coat tails. That's not my intention, so for this particular subject, I'll conclude by saying "Thus saith the Fly."
A big part of the problem is that New Orleans in particular is one of the most corrupt cities in the country, and Louisiana is one of the more corrupt states. I remember learning when I was in New Orleans about six years ago that there are murders and disappearances in New Orleans that just plain go unsolved. It's also apparent that there are issues that should fall under the purview of the Louisiana and New Orleans government agencies, and that should be paid for by Louisiana and New Orleans money, that have been taken care of by the federal budget and federal officials for quite a while. It sounds to me like it was a case of the insane running the asylum, and it's caused irreparable damage and thousands of deaths.
I guess my ultimate contention is this: due to obvious corruption and now-obvious incompetence on the part of Louisiana and New Orleans officials, the initial response to Hurricane Katrina was a dismal failure, and I believe that initial failure to have directly contributed to the continued difficulties and failures in the later relief efforts. Was FEMA unprepared? Maybe; but I think the problems that FEMA has been tasked with addressing are much worse because of the pre-Katrina game of political grabass perpetuated by Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin, and I don't see how that has anything to do with President Bush.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home