Louisiana Dems use Hurricanes as excuse to 'pull pork'

WP: The Gulf Hurricanes: Louisiana Goes After Federal Billions

This one should make several people seeth.

I know that Louisiana was hard hit by Katrina and now Rita, but the amount of money that the Louisiana congressional delegation is going after is nothing less than obscene. Please, check the original article below, and don't just use the snippets I'll be posting. Read the entire thing. By the time you hit the end, you should be ready to do as Mary Landrieu stated and be ready to punch someone (preferably the Louisiana delegation and their pork barrel priorities....)

I'm gonna comment in-line in most places, so please bear with me. Headline is linked. Again, read the original article if possible, and read the entire article. I'm not going to clip the entire thing here, but do want to be sure to include the important parts.

BTW, for this one, I'd love to have the dear old C.O.L. tell me how the money to pay for all of the projects should come from raising taxes... after he reads about all of the proposed projects that is. (And the need, or lack there-of for many of them).

Louisiana Goes After Federal Billions

By Michael Grunwald and Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, September 26, 2005; Page A01

Louisiana's congressional delegation has requested $40 billion for Army Corps of Engineers projects in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, about 10 times the annual Corps budget for the entire nation, or 16 times the amount the Corps has said it would need to protect New Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane.

STOP RIGHT THERE!!! Let me get this straight.... The Corps of Engineers says they need approximately $2.5 Billion to protect New Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane, and yet the Louisiana delegation (Landrieu, Vitter, and others) is asking for 16 times that amount to dole out in their state?!? 10 times the $4 Billion that the Corps currently gets annually? Hmm, I smell fresh pork being pulled from the bones of the federal tax-payers.

Continuing....

Louisiana Sens. David Vitter (R) and Mary Landrieu (D) tucked the request into their $250 billion Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act, the state's opening salvo in the scramble for federal dollars.

Gaaah!!! Make it stop, please make it stop. $250 Billion, with a B (and a Capital one for emphasis at that!) for Katrina relief? Are you friggin' kiddin' me? Where in the bejeezus are we gonna spend all of that money? Ooops, wait, I think the article will help tell us that. But seriously, $250 Billion for an area that has wasted 10's of Billions and 100's of millions in federal hand-outs over the last 40 - 60 years is nothing.

Continuing....

The bill, unveiled last week, would create a powerful "Pelican Commission" (later in the article the meaning of Pelican comes in, it stands for: Protecting Essential Louisiana Infrastructure, Citizens and Nature. I guess some of these pols saw the Pelican Brief, or read the book and figured now was a good time to toss out that name for a commission) controlled by Louisiana residents that would decide which Corps projects to fund, and ordered the commission to consider several controversial navigation projects that have nothing to do with flood protection. The Corps section of the Louisiana bill, which was supported by the entire state delegation, was based on recommendations from a "working group" dominated by lobbyists for ports, shipping firms, energy companies and other corporate interests.

Uh, nice to see that our friends the Democrats can sidle up nicely to their own special interests. The only thing missing is a few no-bid contracts to say Bechtel or Haliburton, right? (As if Dabe and others don't ever want to admit that the Dems are as bad, or even worse in setting up political paybacks and favors for their own friends along the way).

Continuing....

The bill would exempt any Corps projects approved by the commission from provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act. It would also waive the usual Corps cost-sharing requirements, ensuring that federal taxpayers would pay every dime.

Oh my gawd! Are you really serious?! The Dems are pushing a bill that blatantly and totally ignores any Environmental protection policies that they themselves have helped pass over the last, what, say 40 - 60 years?!? Shades of Daschle and the forest thinning that he let happen in his home state while others got to see hundreds of thousands of acres burn because the logging industry was kept at bay.

Clean Water can be ignored too? Thank gawd I don't live near the affected areas. I'd hate to think that the gub-ment was gonna leave me bad water to drink that will cause my chill'in to have 3 eyes or extra toes or fingers or some such all in the name of tryin' to protect me from mutha nature over time.

Come on Dabe and company, defend this stuff. Please. I beg you. Tell me how this is the right solution at the right time, and how ignoring the laws you all tell us we so badly must have is ok for Louisiana and New Orleans, but not ok for the rest of us?

Even better yet, tell us how it's ok that the Gulf region will potentially get many billions of dollars while places like the Chesapeake bay see nothing, or sparse amounts as the sea creatures there are fished out, and killed by pollutants that haven't been removed over the last how many years, even as Maryland continues to send money grabbing and grubbing Democrats to Congress and the Senate, and even as those same money grubbers tell the citizens back home that they've secured Billions over time to help clean up the bay and return it to it's glory. Yeah, right.

The original article goes on a bit, again, I'm not gonna clip the entire thing, but I'll summarize a bit where possible. The next couple of paragraphs are worth seeing though, even if just for background.

Continuing....

With the public eager to help Katrina's victims, President Bush and Congress have already approved $62.3 billion in spending for the Gulf Coast. But some budget hawks are grumbling about the impact on the deficit; the Louisiana delegation's $250 billion bill would cost more than the Louisiana Purchase under the Jefferson administration on an inflation-adjusted basis. Some critics of federal water projects said the $40 billion Corps request could make the delegation look especially greedy and undermine support for the state's reconstruction plans.
Vitter and Landrieu have described their bill as a starting point for congressional deliberations, but one GOP Senate aide said they should not expect to get their entire wish list, voicing particular skepticism of the funding for the Corps. Even before Katrina, Louisiana received more Corps funding than any other state, and that was less than $400 million a year.

So, again, we're reminded that Bush has promised to help, promised to be generous, etc. And we are also seeing hints that the amounts being asked for are obscene and greedy. And reminders that the amount of money that was spent on Louisiana before was the lion's share of Corps funding.

There's another few words on how much money the Corps has said it needs, and that is followed by this nugget:

"This bill boggles the mind," said Steve Ellis, a water resources expert at Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Brazen doesn't begin to describe it. The Louisiana delegation is using Katrina as an excuse to resurrect a laundry list of pork projects."

There's a lot more there, including details of just where the money would supposedly go if Landrieu and Vitter get their way (along with their lobbyist buddies). Again, pretty obscene amounts of money, all of which are coming out now because Landrieu, Vitter, Blanco and the rest of the pols from Louisiana feel that the time is right to guilt the U.S. tax-payers into fixing their states ills in more ways than one.

The only thing that remains to be seen is how much money gets carved up by which contracting firms where. Think back to the Pelican Brief (the book/movie) and follow the money. See where it goes, and you'll get your answer.

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