Bush’s Katrina plan

President Bush launched two ambitious reconstruction projects last week, said Dick Polman in The Philadelphia Inquirer. 'œOne was to rebuild the devastated Gulf Coast. The other was to rebuild his devastated image.' Widely ridiculed for his slow and ineffectual response to Hurricane Katrina, and with his poll numbers at an all-time low, Bush promised to 'œdo what it takes' to help the ravaged citizens of the Gulf Coast. The centerpiece, Bush said, would be the creation of a 'œGulf Opportunity Zone,' a government enterprise that would provide billions of dollars in grants and aid for housing, jobs, education, and health care. Bush also vowed to 'œconfront' the 'œdeep, persistent poverty' and racism that Katrina's powerful winds laid bare. Katrina, it turns out, has transformed far more than the topography of the Gulf states, said Michael Tackett in the Chicago Tribune. It has transformed Bush 'œfrom the logical heir to Ronald Reagan to some curious amalgam of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.'

Not that anyone's buying it, said Frank Rich in The New York Times. 'œOnce Toto parts the curtain, the Wizard of Oz can never be the wizard again.' By now, all but the most steadfast Bush partisans can see through Karl Rove's carefully managed image of this president as a strong, decisive, competent leader. In announcing his Katrina bailout plan, Bush last week strode manfully and purposefully to the lectern in New Orleans, against a backdrop of the city's famous St. Louis Cathedral, brilliantly illuminated by White House klieg lights. It was typical Rove stagecraft'”the same sort of stunt he used for Bush's 'œTop Gun' appearance to say that Iraq was a 'œMission Accomplished.' But Americans are no longer fooled by pretty pictures; they know that Bush stocked FEMA with political cronies, and that he didn't realize for four days that New Orleans was under water. Our self-styled CEO president has 'œa consistent, three-decade record of running private and public enterprises into a ditch,' and now you can add the United States of America to that list.

This much is for sure'”no CEO would ever spend money like this president, said Stephen Moore in The Wall Street Journal. With the federal deficit already at $330 billion, and an expensive war raging in Iraq, Bush just launched the largest public works project in history. He said that his Katrina plan is 'œgoing to cost whatever it costs''”and the final bill is likely to rise to $200 billion. For that, you could give 500,000 displaced families a check for $400,000 each. Is this kind of largesse really necessary'”or appropriate? After the Chicago fire of 1871 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, those cities 'œwere rebuilt proudly to even greater glory'”with hardly any federal money.'

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Take a closer look at Bush's plan, said syndicated columnist Michael Barone. There's a lot less big government there than meets the eye. His Gulf Opportunity Zone uses tax breaks and regulatory relief to attract investment. Similarly, his Worker Recovery Accounts and Urban Homesteading initiative would provide help to people, 'œbut only those who in turn do something to lift themselves up,' such as commit to rebuild and maintain their homes. It took a massive tragedy for it to happen, said David Brooks in The New York Times, but Bush has finally crystallized his vision of 'œcompassionate conservatism.' Rejecting both 'œbig-government liberalism' and 'œanti-government libertarianism,' Bush is 'œwilling to spend heaps of federal dollars.' But he wants those dollars to be used to enhance 'œindividual initiative and personal responsibility.'

David Feldman

Baltimore Sun