As is too often the case with the Bush White House, there’s the president’s rhetoric…
“And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.”
…and there’s Americans’ reality.
Nearly five months after Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, President Bush’s lofty promises to rebuild the Gulf Coast have been frustrated by bureaucratic failures and competing priorities, a review of events since the hurricane shows.
While the administration can claim some clear progress, Bush’s ringing call from New Orleans’s Jackson Square on Sept. 15 to “do what it takes” to make the city rise from the waters has not been matched by action, critics at multiple levels of government say, resulting in a record that is largely incomplete as Bush heads into next week’s State of the Union address.
The problems include the slow federal cleanup of debris in Mississippi and Louisiana; a lack of authority for Bush’s handpicked recovery coordinator, Donald E. Powell; the shortage and poor quality of housing for evacuees; and federal restrictions on reconstruction money and where coastal communities can rebuild.
There was a political crisis, so the Bush gang offered rhetoric and bold promises. That crisis has been replaced with no ones, so the Bush gang offers the Gulf Coast very little.
It’s just another day in Bushville.