Tom Tancredo is probably the only politician to speak out when it comes to the runaway federal spending in New Orleans, Louisiana after hurricane Katrina and maybe one of only two or three presidential candidates, republicans and democrats included, who tells it like it is.

Tancredo Calls for Moratorium on Additional Federal Katrina Spending
Tom Tancredo
August 31, 2007

Lawmaker Says “Enough is Enough” After Two Years and $114 Billion

(WASHINGTON, DC) – U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) today criticized runaway government spending on post-Katrina recovery efforts as excessive, and called for a halt to any additional appropriations amid rumors that additional Katrina requests for money are forthcoming.

“The amount of money that has been wasted on these so-called ‘recovery’ efforts has been mind-boggling,” said Tancredo, “Enough is enough.”

According to the White House, the federal government has provided about $114 billion in funding and resources for hurricane recovery in the gulf coast over the last two years – or around $1 billion per week – a staggering figure.  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that potentially more than $1 billion in taxpayer money has been squandered through waste, fraud and abuse.

“At some point, state and local officials and individuals have got to step up to the plate and take some initiative,” said Tancredo, “The mentality that people can wait around indefinitely for the federal taxpayer to solve all their worldly problems has got to come to an end.”

Tancredo noted that after the devastating San Francisco and Chicago fires of the last century, individuals and local officials rolled up their sleeves and rebuilt – all without truckloads of money from the federal government.

“This whole fiasco has been a perfect storm of corruption and incompetence at all levels” said Tancredo, “It’s time the taxpayer gravy train left the New Orleans station.”

News outlets have reported significant abuses of federal aid money by recipients, including the use of relief money to pay for Louis Vuitton handbags, adult entertainment, bail bond services, jewelry, weapons, and even to pay traffic violation fines.  Earlier this year, GAO estimated “improper and potentially fraudulent payments related to the Individuals and Households Program… to be $1 billion through February 2006.”

Tancredo, who warned in the immediate aftermath of the disaster that Louisiana officials could not be trusted with federal funds given that state’s long history of corruption, pointed out that several state emergency management officials were already awaiting trial on charges related to improperly using public funds when Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

“State and local officials have been shirking their responsibilities and taking advantage of taxpayers since before day one,” said Tancredo, “Throwing more money at this debacle will do nothing but perpetuate more of the same.”

Tancredo slams Katrina spending
Tancredo: NOLA aid is ‘gravy train’
Tancredo Calls For An End To Post-Katrina Aid

“Throwing more money at this debacle will do nothing but perpetuate more of the same.”


Instead, it could be spent in Iraq.

Instead, it could be spent in Iraq.


exactly what I'm thinking.  An entire US city is destroyed, because the government didn't properly maintain the pumps in the levys, and the total costs to date are something like a week of expenses in Iraq and people complain about the cost to rebuild NO.

Let me guess, he has no problems with bailing out his buddies in the banking sector who oversold sub-prime mortgages too.

The ridiculous move here isn't rebuilding New Orleans.

I think Jeremy Clarkson made the best point when he visited New Orleans a year after Katrina and said "I don't know how the rest of America can sleep at night." The money isn't being wasted.

The ridiculous thing is rebuilding New Orleans exactly as it was. Instead of just rebuilding in areas where flooding was awful, rebuild in areas where it wasn't, extend out.. but of course, that would mean "Havin' them colored sorts comin' through our neighborhoods" and we can't have that.  ::)

The ridiculous move here isn't rebuilding New Orleans.

I think Jeremy Clarkson made the best point when he visited New Orleans a year after Katrina and said "I don't know how the rest of America can sleep at night." The money isn't being wasted.

The ridiculous thing is rebuilding New Orleans exactly as it was. Instead of just rebuilding in areas where flooding was awful, rebuild in areas where it wasn't, extend out.. but of course, that would mean "Havin' them colored sorts comin' through our neighborhoods" and we can't have that.  ::)


Tancredo I can't take seriously.  I would give him a massive does of antipsychotics in the morning and sit him on the back patio with a glass of lemonade.  That's the career for Tom Tancredo, not the U.S. House.

Anyway,  what we have with New Orleans is a doomed city on a doomed coast line.  The "ragged sole" of Louisiana is sinking and that's all there is to it.  Yes, there is terrible injustice and racism in play post-Katrina as there was in pre-Katrina New Orleans. 

"we finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did it."
--Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) after Katrina

The rich white people can remake the Crescent City in their own image--Creole Disneyland--but the city's fate is sealed.  The only question is when.

Tancredo I can't take seriously.  I would give him a massive does of antipsychotics in the morning and sit him on the back patio with a glass of lemonade.  That's the career for Tom Tancredo, not the U.S. House.

Anyway,  what we have with New Orleans is a doomed city on a doomed coast line.  The "ragged sole" of Louisiana is sinking and that's all there is to it.  Yes, there is terrible injustice and racism in play post-Katrina as there was in pre-Katrina New Orleans. 

"we finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did it."
--Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) after Katrina

The rich white people can remake the Crescent City in their own image--Creole Disneyland--but the city's fate is sealed.  The only question is when.


It is essentially doomed. What's funny is if Tancrendo was just able to word what he wanted to say a little more eloquently he'd probably have a lot more support from his statement. Throwing billions of dollars at New Orleans isn't going to do anything except perpetuate the existence of an economically dead and socially distraught city. Let the people move, most of them already have. I don't mean to say just forget about New Orleans, but the area simply can't support so many people.

exactly what I'm thinking.  An entire US city is destroyed, because the government didn't properly maintain the pumps in the levys, ...

You actually think that NOLA flooded because some pumps broke down?

They do not make pumps that big.  Not nearly that big.  Not even a tenth that big. There ain't no pumps that can handle the rain and storm surge volume of a hurricane, let alone a monster like Katrina.

NOLA flooded because a big honkin' storm hit an area that has lots of land mass below sea level, behind levees that were not built to withstand such a storm. People who build levees, people who live there, people who pay taxes, etc... all bear the risk when they live there.  Just like Californians bear the risk of earthquakes and Hawaiians bear the risk of volcanic eruption.  Ad when Mother Nature gets PO'd, mann's technology gets swatted away like a yapping dog.

As was the case along the Missouri River maybe 10-12 years ago.  Levees there broke in small sections, just a couple, and the whole area flooded.  It happened again in Indiana around 1990 or so when a levee was breached, only this time a small 20-foot section by a guy who was excavating to expand his parking lot ( boy, people sure were PO'd at him).  A levee is like a very long piece of rope.  Break it in even one small place and the whole thing is essentially useless at that point.

Levees are a monument to man's stupidity and arrogance, and sooner or later they will all give the heave-ho.  And due to the science of hydraulics, the entire levee does not have to fail.  Just one small section and the water will seek its level.  And there are not pumps big enough to handle it when it happens.

It is essentially doomed. What's funny is if Tancrendo was just able to word what he wanted to say a little more eloquently he'd probably have a lot more support from his statement. Throwing billions of dollars at New Orleans isn't going to do anything except perpetuate the existence of an economically dead and socially distraught city. Let the people move, most of them already have. I don't mean to say just forget about New Orleans, but the area simply can't support so many people.


Throwing billions of dollars at New Orleans will make government contractors fat and happy, and that's the name 'o the game!  Who cares if your work is shabby and flimsy!  Who cares if you charge fifty bucks for a warped piece of plywood!  It's all gonna be under water pretty soon anyway!  A politician can get his palm greased by contractors or he can win points with the voters by bellyaching about government waste.  Either way, the crooks win and the citizens lose!
::)


You actually think that NOLA flooded because some pumps broke down?

They do not make pumps that big.  Not nearly that big.  Not even a tenth that big. There ain't no pumps that can handle the rain and storm surge volume of a hurricane, let alone a monster like Katrina.

NOLA flooded because a big honkin' storm hit an area that has lots of land mass below sea level, behind levees that were not built to withstand such a storm. People who build levees, people who live there, people who pay taxes, etc... all bear the risk when they live there.  Just like Californians bear the risk of earthquakes and Hawaiians bear the risk of volcanic eruption.  Ad when Mother Nature gets PO'd, mann's technology gets swatted away like a yapping dog.

As was the case along the Missouri River maybe 10-12 years ago.  Levees there broke in small sections, just a couple, and the whole area flooded.  It happened again in Indiana around 1990 or so when a levee was breached, only this time a small 20-foot section by a guy who was excavating to expand his parking lot ( boy, people sure were PO'd at him).  A levee is like a very long piece of rope.  Break it in even one small place and the whole thing is essentially useless at that point.

Levees are a monument to man's stupidity and arrogance, and sooner or later they will all give the heave-ho.  And due to the science of hydraulics, the entire levee does not have to fail.  Just one small section and the water will seek its level.  And there are not pumps big enough to handle it when it happens.


Area scientists were warning the government about the looming catastrophe for years and years before Katrina.  Did anybody listen?  No sirreee Bob!  Ever hear of the Hurricane Pam model?  According to Ivor Van Heerden of the LSU Hurricane Center, Katrina wasn't the worst case scenario by far; at most it was a medium-case scenario!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_van_Heerden
Imagine if Hurricane Rita nailed N.O. full tilt!  Could happen.  It's not likely to happen in the next 5, 10, or 20 years, but you never know.  If a Cat 5 slams N.O. with full fury, they'll be talking about the Creole Atlantis, I sh*t you not!
:o

I don't know enough about what's going on in New Orleans to comment, but this jumped out at me:


According to the White House, the federal government has provided about $114 billion in funding and resources for hurricane recovery in the gulf coast over the last two years – or around $1 billion per week – a staggering figure.  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that potentially more than $1 billion in taxpayer money has been squandered through waste, fraud and abuse.

$1B "squandered" through waste, fraud and abuse may sound like a lot, but that's under 1% - I would be very, very surprised if the actual amount wasted is less than ten times that.  People can get very clever at extracting money from government funds once they know what the terms of extraction are, and it's virtually impossible to have checks at a suitable level (for a start, you need to make sure the people doing the checking are incorruptible... yeah, right)

....and the total costs to date are something like a week of expenses in Iraq and people complain about the cost to rebuild NO.


Huh?  The Boston Globe reports the cost of the Iraq war at nearly two billion per week.

The amount of money spent on Katrina, Rita and Wilma in five seperate states is about 114 billion.  60 billion for Louisiana alone and 26 billion for rebuilding.  All way higher than what is spent per week in Iraq (a war I am not a fan of, by the way).

Huh?  The Boston Globe reports the cost of the Iraq war at nearly two billion per week.

The amount of money spent on Katrina, Rita and Wilma in five seperate states is about 114 billion.  60 billion for Louisiana alone and 26 billion for rebuilding.  All way higher than what is spent per week in Iraq (a war I am not a fan of, by the way).


ok, so the amount of fraud is $1B, which is about one week of the Iraq war.  Still a drop in the bucket compared to the waste overseas, which the US will never see a return on.  As for the final cost of NO reconstruction costs, that number is still less than the $80 Billion damage estimate, and I doubt the other $20B is coming from the insurance companies who have been notorious about paying out as little as they can.  So let's see, $100B a year in Iraq (over several years) which produces no US infrastructure and lots of death and illwill, or $60B in replacement infrastructure in a US city.  Yeah, tough decision there.

Compare this with another flood disaster from the 1970s that Larry Craig's replacement Jim Risch was recently bragging about:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mark_schmitt/2007/08/the_real_hypocrisy_of_idaho_co.html

They spent $100 million in 1976 dollars (about $0.5B in today's money) to build a dam they knew would break to benefit a handful of wealthy land owners, and then spent $850 million (or about $5B in today's dollars) in restitution to the 15,000 victims. That's $300,000 per victim in today's money (without even factoring in the useless dam's costs).  $60B/$1.5B is about $40 per victim in New Orleans.  Which is the bigger rip off? 

It seems like the politicians would rather waste money in a desert (be it in Idaho or Iraq) than to waste it on a port city.

Hey GW (starter of this thread) ... you're over here in Sydney right now! We have our very own 'Berlin Wall' of security  to protect your oh so 'precious' ass! One of a select few U.S presidents whose hand I'd turn down the 'privilege' of shaking ... if offered!

Well, that would apply to our very own 'John Howard' .... who hopefully will have his ass severely kicked at the upcoming election!

I know Jimmy Carter is regarded as a 'weak president' .... certainly 'economy wise' .. but he was one decent guy in my book .. and possibly the best President in terms of decency .. I suspect .. in the last 40 years?

You actually think that NOLA flooded because some pumps broke down?

They do not make pumps that big.  Not nearly that big.  Not even a tenth that big. There ain't no pumps that can handle the rain and storm surge volume of a hurricane, let alone a monster like Katrina.

NOLA flooded because a big honkin' storm hit an area that has lots of land mass below sea level, behind levees that were not built to withstand such a storm. People who build levees, people who live there, people who pay taxes, etc... all bear the risk when they live there.  Just like Californians bear the risk of earthquakes and Hawaiians bear the risk of volcanic eruption.  Ad when Mother Nature gets PO'd, mann's technology gets swatted away like a yapping dog.

As was the case along the Missouri River maybe 10-12 years ago.  Levees there broke in small sections, just a couple, and the whole area flooded.  It happened again in Indiana around 1990 or so when a levee was breached, only this time a small 20-foot section by a guy who was excavating to expand his parking lot ( boy, people sure were PO'd at him).  A levee is like a very long piece of rope.  Break it in even one small place and the whole thing is essentially useless at that point.

Levees are a monument to man's stupidity and arrogance, and sooner or later they will all give the heave-ho.  And due to the science of hydraulics, the entire levee does not have to fail.  Just one small section and the water will seek its level.  And there are not pumps big enough to handle it when it happens.


I was wrong, the pump failures were only part of the problem.  If the levees were built to the specifications they were supposed to be, it would have survived the hurricane that hit.  It might not have survived a direct hit, but a direct hit is not what happened in NO.

They knew since 1986 the design was insufficient, but the government didn't act.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_levee_failures_in_Greater_New_Orleans#U.S._Army_Corps_of_Engineers_Admits_Fault

There seems to be this attitude amongst people that it's just a poor place for a city to be built because it can be flooded.  Well give me any other major city in the world, and I'm sure I can name a natural catastrophe that could just as easily affect it and destroy a large portion of it. Go ahead though and cite the fact that New Orleans is below sea level.  So what? On the Mississippi gulf coast the flood waters were 38 feet high, or 28 feet above sea level.  I haven't heard anyone make the claim Mississippi cities shouldn't be rebuilt because they can be flooded too.

Hey GW (starter of this thread) ... you're over here in Sydney right now! We have our very own 'Berlin Wall' of security  to protect your oh so 'precious' ass! One of a select few U.S presidents whose hand I'd turn down the 'privilege' of shaking ... if offered!


What?  Berlin wall?

Sure, let's blame the victims here-the people who lost their homes, their livelihoods, and in many cases, their families. We all know they are just trying to milk the government out of everything it has. How can these people be so ungrateful that the government helped them out by providing them with trailers that are sinking in the mud in Hope, Arkansas.  ::)


New Orleans has shown how truly incompetent this administration really is. There is just so much fraud and abuse going on that it makes your head swim. And they are going to protect us from terrorist? Yeah, right. It just really makes me very angry. I say:


IMPEACH THE B@ST@RDS!!!!!! 



Cat

Sure, let's blame the victims here-the people who lost their homes, their livelihoods, and in many cases, their families. We all know they are just trying to milk the government out of everything it has. How can these people be so ungrateful that the government helped them out by providing them with trailers that are sinking in the mud in Hope, Arkansas.  ::)
I'm not sure the blame is being put on the people who have lost their homes: any odds you like, it'll be a handful of either organized criminals or builders who have worked out the way to milk the system and get out millions for work which only ever appears on paper

I'm not sure the blame is being put on the people who have lost their homes: any odds you like, it'll be a handful of either organized criminals or builders who have worked out the way to milk the system and get out millions for work which only ever appears on paper



Government contractors hired by the Bush Administration.



Cat

Government contractors hired by the Bush Administration.



Cat

The Bush Administration hired by government contractors. 
:P