The Only Thing That Needs To Be Said About Katrina

You're on your own. Spook86 reports:

But, as Larry Kudlow points out in a column at RealClearPolitics, there is an unreported story from Hurricane Katrina that cuts to the heart of the recovery effort. How much, he asks, has the federal government spent on New Orleans and the Gulf Region since the storm?

The total (so far) is $127 billion, including tax relief.  Put another way, the federal largess is enough to write a $425,000 check for the 300,000 people left in New Orleans.  Perhaps, as Mr. Kudlow suggests, we'd be better off in using that approach. A White House "fact sheet" details $50 billion spent for rebuilding schools, levees and other infrastructure; that total also includes $16.7 billion for housing recovery.

What happened to the rest of that money?  Your guess is as good as mine.

Anybody and everybody should now understand what we Conservatives understand. If people had $425K, they would handle their business quite well without the government (or not). But that they have depended on the government and now that tax money which was wasted on bureaucrats and agencies trying to do for other people what cannot be done. That is be the right eyes and ears on the needs of people and make the right decisions on an individual basis.

Short of that, which is all we're ever going to be, one has to wonder how the government can spend that many billions and the effect be totally unrecognized. My guess is that there are politics involved in which people have vested interests in not bothering to look closer (myself included) and spin positive or negative no matter what. I am struck, for example, at how many people are convinced Katrina was a man-made disaster and not an act of god. I am also struck by the consistent arguments that the extent to which the government can or cannot respond to the disaster establishes a benchmark for its willingness to assist blackfolks.

I think 127 Billion in government aid ought to speak for itself. In fact i think it does. In the end, we will all have to agree despite our best intentions, there are some things that people have to be willing and able to do themselves. And guess what. That applies to Iraq as well as New Orleans.