Tuesday, October 04, 2005
DELIBERATE DISASTERS - by Jim Hightower
We now know that the disastrous collapse of the Lake Pontchartrain levee in New Orleans was no accident.
George Bush's own federal emergency experts had been shouting for years that The Big One was coming to the Big Easy, and that the flood-protection system of this fabled American city was criminally inadequate. But the Bushites were blasé, saying: Hey, we're pushing a new "ownership society" in which everyone is responsible for their own well-being instead of counting on nasty ol' government to help them. They cut the money for shoring up the levees.
So... people died. Welcome to the Bush's ownership society. Step this way if you want to own a casket.
Lest you think that the New Orleans levee failure doesn't affect you, it was but a forewarning to every place in America – because loud-mouthed, budget-slashing politicians of both parties have failed miserably to keep our nation's house in even minimal repair. The American Society of Civil Engineers has determined that more than 3,500 dams maintained by state and local governments are "unsafe." Unsafe! The engineering experts also calculate that America must spend $11 billion a year just to bring our existing drinking-water facilities up to a safe standard – yet, the short-sighted budget-slashers are not even allocating 10-percent of this necessary funding. And spending for our highways and bridges is more than $6 billion short of the minimum needed each year just to maintain what we have – much less building the new ones we need.
This is Jim Hightower saying... Even tight-fisted fiscal conservatives know that routine maintenance of our essential infrastructure is cheaper than disaster. The ongoing deterioration of our nation's vital public works is the direct result of totally irresponsible political hacks posturing as small-government budget whackers. They are creating disasters – and one can only hope that an especially-horrific level of hell awaits them.
"Disasters Waiting to Happen," New York Times, September 11, 2005.
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George Bush's own federal emergency experts had been shouting for years that The Big One was coming to the Big Easy, and that the flood-protection system of this fabled American city was criminally inadequate. But the Bushites were blasé, saying: Hey, we're pushing a new "ownership society" in which everyone is responsible for their own well-being instead of counting on nasty ol' government to help them. They cut the money for shoring up the levees.
So... people died. Welcome to the Bush's ownership society. Step this way if you want to own a casket.
Lest you think that the New Orleans levee failure doesn't affect you, it was but a forewarning to every place in America – because loud-mouthed, budget-slashing politicians of both parties have failed miserably to keep our nation's house in even minimal repair. The American Society of Civil Engineers has determined that more than 3,500 dams maintained by state and local governments are "unsafe." Unsafe! The engineering experts also calculate that America must spend $11 billion a year just to bring our existing drinking-water facilities up to a safe standard – yet, the short-sighted budget-slashers are not even allocating 10-percent of this necessary funding. And spending for our highways and bridges is more than $6 billion short of the minimum needed each year just to maintain what we have – much less building the new ones we need.
This is Jim Hightower saying... Even tight-fisted fiscal conservatives know that routine maintenance of our essential infrastructure is cheaper than disaster. The ongoing deterioration of our nation's vital public works is the direct result of totally irresponsible political hacks posturing as small-government budget whackers. They are creating disasters – and one can only hope that an especially-horrific level of hell awaits them.
"Disasters Waiting to Happen," New York Times, September 11, 2005.
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