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September 16, 2005
President Bush, the Heritage Foundation and Katrina's Aftermath
Last night President Bush delivered the speech of his presidency. It was clear, decisive, uplifting and appeared to contain a dose of self criticism. It was also free of the smirking, (yes, there was a half smirk at one point, but I will forgive him that) and the nervous twitching that have come to typify his public presentation style. And it lacked the usual "ah shucks," pseudo-cowboy nonsense to which we have become accustomed. In short, it was presidential.
The content was timely as the speech fell correctly between the winding down of the rescue stage of the Katrina disaster and the beginning of rebuilding. However, the tone was at least seventeen and perhaps twenty one days late. Katrina struck the gulf coast at 6:10 CDT on August 29, 2005 but the National Hurricane Center indicated that Hurricane Katrina was likely to become a dangerous storm on August 25. By the way, a good chronological summary of the storm, its aftermath and the government's reaction can be found at the Daily Kos', Hurricane Katrina Timeline .
I was interested in where the President's ideas for reconstruction came from and was led to The Heritage Foundations website via Paul Krugman's New York Times Op-Ed piece.
The neoconservative Heritage Foundation published their recommendations for gulf coast reconstruction on September 12. If you read the President's speech and those recommendations you may be shocked at the extent of the commonality. I will give you an example. Last night President Bush said,
Tonight I propose the creation of a Gulf Opportunity Zone, encompassing the region of the disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama. Within this zone, we should provide immediate incentives for job-creating investment, tax relief for small businesses, incentives to companies that create jobs, and loans and loan guarantees for small businesses, including minority-owned enterprises, to get them up and running again. It is entrepreneurship that creates jobs and opportunity; it is entrepreneurship that helps break the cycle of poverty; and we will take the side of entrepreneurs as they lead the economic revival of the Gulf region.
The Heritage Foundation said,
"The key is to encourage private-sector creativity—for example, by declaring New Orleans and other severely damaged areas “Opportunity Zones” in which capital gains tax on investments is eliminated and regu¬lations eliminated or simplified."
I don't know if this is a good idea or not; but I do know that I don't want the Heritage Foundation involved in establishing government policy.
I have not done a complete collation between the President's speech and the Heritage Foundation recommendations, but with few exceptions, Heritage Foundation's recommendations are clearly central to the meat of the President's speech or, in my view, coded into it. For example, I cannot help but believe that the highlighted the words in the following quotation from the President's speech are nothing more than sugar coated code for what the Heritage Foundation recommends.
And the federal government will undertake a close partnership with the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, the city of New Orleans, and other Gulf Coast cities, so they can rebuild in a sensible, well-planned way. Federal funds will cover the great majority of the costs of repairing public infrastructure in the disaster zone, from roads and bridges to schools and water systems.
Here is part of what the Heritage Foundations says,
Repeal or waive restrictive environmental regulations that hamper rebuilding a broad array of infrastruc¬ture from refineries to roads and stadiums.
One item that was not in the speech but was in the accompanying "Fact Sheet" is an allusion to school vouchers.
To ensure that displaced families have maximum flexibility to meet the education needs of their children, the President's proposal would provide compensation to displaced families for enrollment in private, including parochial, schools.
The Heritage Foundation is one of the most vocal supporters of the dangerous idea of funding private schools at the expense of public schools. They say in the document from which I have been quoting,
Parents should be given direct control over Title I funding, and regulations governing the allowable use of how that money can be spent should be expanded to include private school tuition and after-school tutoring programs to allow parents to meet the immediate needs for their children.
Try to remember, this document is the Heritage Foundation's suggestions for changes in policy as a result of a hurricane.
The only things that I found in the President's speech that are not in the Heritage Foundation recommendations is his idea of Urban Homesteading and his proposals for direct relief for victims in some form other than tax relief.
I was glad to hear the President mention Habitat for Humanity.
The whole speech and its clear points on contact with the Heritage Foundation policy suggestions convinces me that Krugman is correct when he says,
Now it begins: America's biggest relief and recovery program since the New Deal. And the omens aren't good.
Posted by DuaneSmith at September 16, 2005 12:17 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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