What's Missing From Obama's Infrastructure Plan
At his Sunday news conference--the President-Elect will have had more of these get-togethers with the media before he's sworn in than the President-Reject has had in eight years--Barack Obama gave a few more details about his new New Deal program for massive federal spending for infrastructure. What caught my ear: his pledge that the program would go beyond "roads and bridges" to other programs with "long-term payoffs for taxpayers". That list included the now-familiar broadband Internet buildout, getting medical records into electronic form, school construction, and "making our economy more energy efficient."
Gee, that's the whole "progressive" shopping list for federal infrastructure--except for one nagging little thing. For those whose memories are short, here's a clue, from Saturday's Times-Picayune:
A long-delayed Army Corps of Engineers plan for protection against a Category 5 hurricane -- a storm as large as or larger than Hurricane Katrina -- will be delayed until at least June, and maybe longer, the project's manager says.
Further, the final document won't be a plan at all, but rather a menu of about two dozen alternatives for Congress to further study and debate, a recipe for additional delay.
Yes, the same Corps of Engineers that made (and ultimately took long-delayed responsibility for) crucial engineering and design mistakes that led to the 2005 flooding of New Orleans is now slow-walking plans to rectify its handiwork. And nowhere in President-Elect Obama's laundry list of infrastructure expenditures is a commitment to ramp up work on flood protection and coastal wetlands restoration for the area that supplies--sorry, Governor Palin--as much as 40% of this country's domestic oil production.
Friends of mine assure me that that little item is a stealth priority--"he doesn't want to rile up all the anti-New Orleans sentiment before he takes office"--that, like John Kerry, who never mentioned the Supreme Court during his campaign, New Orleans is an issue that this guy cares so deeply about he dare not mention it yet.
New Orleanians, always met with "why should we give you money so your corrupt politicians can hijack it?", have done their share, throwing Dollar Bill Jefferson out of office in a stunning election upset. Now what's Washington's excuse?
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
The governments response to Katrina/Rita is a damning disgrace. The infrastructure lies broken. Midwest flooding has undermined dozens of bridges and overpasses in Missouri,A
When are we going to stop building and re-building in areas below sea level, in flood plains, fire zones and other places where people insist on moving back time after time? If they want to do that, they should be on their own. I don't even want my homeowners insurance impacted by their risky decisions. If they want to pay super high premiums for insurance, fine, but don't spread that type of risk to me. I live in a very low risk area for flood or massive fires and I have a separate earthquake policy (California). So, the folks who live in low area of the gulf and in Florida can pay the high prices if they want to live there.
Politically incorrect alert. Since it will be very expensive to repair and maintain those very low areas of New Orleans there should be no people on welfare living there just because they like it. It's not the Holy Land. Americans move around the country all the time. There should be no lifetime entitlement to land that is being subsidized by others.
See Harry Shearer's Profile
One of the things we in New Orleans like about the town is the rootedness of the population, which leads to things like traditions and indigenous culture. That's one of the reasons, aside from the sheer justice of federal taxpayers paying to fix what they paid to break, why it's worth saving.
As Colin Powell was attributed with saying of Iraq, the same applies to NOLA ( T. Friedman said it), " You break it, you own it." We will do the work in NOLA - the feds just need to get out their (our!!!) check book and own up to their responsibility, their culpability.
The people of New Orleans have paid one dollar for levees for every penny you have paid. They do pay higher prices for their safety.
The people of New Orleans had the highest rate of insuredness of anywhere in the country. They have a separate flood policy, too.
The people living in the Lower Ninth Ward had a higher rate of home ownership than that of the city as a whole.
They own the property, they pay to insure their property and they pay for the flood protection of the property. I see the entitlement, but don't see the subsidy.
By your deeply flawed reasoning, we should not build in Ca becasue of earthquakes, the midwest due to floods & tornadoes and drought, Florida because it gets hit with a hurricane every year, the Southwest becasue they are a desert, the Northeast because they get too cold and need too much heating oil...
And you intentionally ignore the fact that the Dutch, right after Katrina, offered their engineers and dike plans, manpower, and equipment, to rebuild the MS river levees. But Bush said no, as usual, he thought he knew better than anybody else. Note very careful the Netherlands- they are below sea level and they do just fine, becasue they have smart people in charge and they do things correctly.
I'm in California, and I always tie New Orleans in when I call my congress critters to suggest an economic opinion.
I noticed that it is still the biggest ignored issue of the past 5 years. And all the problems that continue to make the lilves of the displaced even worse.
What a travesty. When the babies from NO grow up sick and angry, we'll kind of have some problems ourselves.
Mr Shearer,
I think all your points are well expressed from a certain perspective. But, what issue might be missing from your view, is whether or not New Orleans should have ever been built on that site, and whether attempts to contain nature is throwing good money after bad? New Orleans is an important seaport, perhaps indespensable, but even the early settlers had the brains to build their houses on stilts, basically, and have the lower level ready to evacuate in the event of impending storm.
I think whats missing from Obama's economic policy is a plan to use the same tax dollars to satisfy nearly every agenda he has proposed. In short, buy toxic assets, foreclosed homes, thus bailing out the banks. Hire local contractors to "green them to the max", solar panels (electric and thermal), high efficiency appliances, convert from fuel oil to natural gas. Etc. Residential construction and manufacturing jobs created. And the taxpayers are left with something of real value, rather than stocks in banks that may well fail anyway, which would be recycle paper, nothing more.
NeoWolfe
See Harry Shearer's Profile
This is a question that has been debated here since Katrina left town. As John Barry, author of "Rising Tide", points out, no river seaport has been built anywhere in the world that's not at or below sea level. Additionally, many neighborhoods flooded during the 2005 event had never flooded before. So are they built in the wrong place, or were the levees the Congress mandated to protect them designed and built poorly?
Or will the natural protection against hurricanes for New Orleans and southern Louisiana, the wetlands, which are disappearing at the rate of a football field a day, be allowed to continue to sink into the gulf until New Orleans is a coastal city?
Ironically, this, the greatest natural disaster of our time, was also created by the Army Corps of Engineers.
I feel the THIS is the real, long term, massive, job creating, natural, infrastructure that needs to be addressed. And I, also, have been waiting for Obama to mention it.
And along with 40% of the oil, 30% of our seafood comes from this area. It is rapidly being lost.
And for those who say the city should not have been built there, remember, the original and oldest sections of the city did not flood.
Did the early settlers of New Orleans "build their houses on stilts?"
Where did they do that? None of the French Quarter is built that way.
Great news America, President Elect Obama within a few weeks of his inaugural ceremony shall declare all illegal immigrants amnesty and give them broadly defined rights and priveledges. This act shall enable them to unfairly compete for the lowest paying jobs but jobs none the less in the public infrastructure arenas such as water and sewer constructi
Where did you get that idea? Fox or Rush?
It is not what is left out that bothers me but what is emphasized: roads. I hope that they do not spend much on roads as in another 3-5 years car and truck drivers will not be able to find gasoline at acceptable prices to run them. Despite the high price of oil in the last 2.5years production is declining and producing nations are starting to hoard oil. Expect $3-400 per barrel oil in about 4 years (if we are out of recession). And we would not have gotten anywhere like enough alternative fuels to compensate.
Instead the infrastructure plan needs to stress mass transit as in fast, inexpensive and pervasive trains and buses and we also need to emphasize LPG energised autos as this gas is more readily available in large quantities.
Well written - this is the missing core of the 'puzzle' re: transit infrastructure - public transit in the 21st century. Magnetic-levitation [mag-lev] must be part of that move from the past to the future; it is clean, can be built up over wilderness and not be harmful to animals, can go over fields and rivers/etc. - and can be clean and comfortable. (The magnetisim can even give some relief to folks like me who at age 61 can appreciate how magnetism positively assists in pain management for fibromyalgia and arthritis, among other things.)
How ironic that China has mag-lev working and WE DO NOT.
you do understand that maglev trains require tracks right? It's not a hovercraft, it uses magnetism to repel the train off the tracks, and a peristaltic wave of megnetism that pushes/pulls the train for forward motion...
And also, besides that, the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal can see Cuba from Louisiana, from which the Castro brothers rear their heads when they fly into Louisiana's air space. I guess that kind of foreign policy experience qualifies the good governor to be president of the United States.
I have seen a prediction that says:
In this fractal sequence a further 80-90 per cent decline of equity and commodity values is possible over the next 16-20 months with long term debt US instruments approaching zero yields.
So why not spend it on levies and other engineering projects like dikes to save this area from flooding?
Sigh. Obama said that these were *some* of the elements of his plan, not the whole enchilada. More is coming.
Sadly , New Orleans has a history of corruption and open corruption. There is a serious dialogue needed on how to rebuild New Orleans levees as well as restricting further development in an area that is a natural disaster waiting to happen. The Netherlands has offered free assistance in providing engineering and technology and engineering solutions of living below sea level. No one was interested. Everyone is interested in making ab buck and no one seems interested in saving one of Americas most beautiful cities.
Like GM, Ford and Chrysler - New Orleans needs a plan to take to Washington to show how the city can be saved, and how development can be directed to take people out of areas of danger. The plan should show what benefits America gains by rebuilding New Orleans and how it serves the public interest to do so. That would not be very hard to do. Before New Orleans is given any more money, how about the city and the state presenting a responsible all encompassing plan to improve infrastructure as well as improving how the poor population can be brought our of poverty.
I grew up spending summers in an around New Orleans. It is still a town that is held back by poor public education, public corruption, condoned police violence and rampant racism. These issues are as destructive to the city as Katrina and all must be addressed. The city is too beautiful to be so ravaged by ignorance and neglect.
Right after Katrina, there were multitudes of calls for a full and open dialogue with the citizens of NOLA, and lots of community planners, engineers, (The Dutch), and should have included the feds, state, and city governments, large charitable institutions like hospitals, and any other stakeholders.
There was supposed to be a plan developed for whether, how, and in what areas to rebuild - keeping in mind that the lower areas are sinking (they didn't used to be this far below sea level), costs of building and maintaining Cat 5 dikes and canals, chemical and industrual pollution left behind after the catastrophe, restoration of the river delta and the barrier islands and the wetlands, and a lot of other issues.
It did not happen. A huge opportunity was lost. I'm not sure it it can be recovered. People in some of those neighborhoods have gone ahead with reconstructing their homes - and there is no electricity, water or sewer service. Still.
Maybe it is not too late. But how would this happen. It seems that there is no appetite for it except for the displaced poor and middle class citizens of NOLA. The plan should also address all the issues cowboylove talked about as well.
Mr. Obama ... please do not dare spend an extra penny on New Orleans ... after millions have been spent, thousands of home sitting around waiting, and incompetent city government complicating an already-competent federal government ... not another penny.
The one truth out of Katrina/New Orleans that has any real meaning (since we all knew that the Bush Administration was incompetent beyond comprehension) is the racism it revealed. Sadly, as has happened in urban areas around the country, the answer to racism is seldom to rely on the racial leaders in place during the wrong, and New Orleans has proved that once again.
See Harry Shearer's Profile
On the contrary, since Katrina New Orleanians have reformed their local levee boards, their local tax assessor system, as well as approving the city's first inspector general to investigate corruption.
Orleans and Jefferson parishes also just booted the bum - Bill Jefferson and elected the first Vietnamese-American to Congress from our very own 2nd Congressional District just two days ago.
We switched to the guy who has taught ethics and morals - CAO - from the guy who is the textbook example of what not to do in Morals & Ethics 101. We are switching to Excellence in Louisiana.
As a native New Orleanian, I've seen a dramatic change in the way that New Orleanians involve themselves in the preservation and progression of their city.
On the whole, New Orleanians have become more vigilant than ever before. We are not afraid to call "foul" on corrupt public servants and other officials for failing to act in our best interest, we're not afraid to praise and support those who have the right things in mind for our city, and we certainly are NOT looking for a handout. Those of us who are not in "power positions" in city government don't waste time waiting for things to get moving. We band together with others in our communities, we mobilize ourselves, and we don't sit around sipping sweet-tea waiting for the mailman to place a fat government check in our mailboxes.
We, the Citizens of New Orleans, are involved in all aspects of recovery, and we push for changes that will fortify our city and, with all American tax-payers in mind, we continue to push for changes that will maximize our city's ability to remain a vital asset to our national and global economy.
To those who support us, many, many thanks to you....
And to those who simply don't believe that we're worth preserving, I encourage you to come visit us, and see for yourself just how motivated and active we are. If you aren't up for a trip, I encourage you to look at New Orleanians in action---read our newspaper, watch our city's news broadcasts on their websites, listen to our radio stations (also on the web), and perhaps most importantly, think of how the loss of New Orleans might affect you, wherever you are.
Harry--again, thank you so much for continuing to advocate for our city, and for keeping this important discussion going.
whats missing is his pledge to quit smoking, he owes that to his family..ni
Yeah, what happened to that? I used to smoke and you dont smoke "now and then". If you cant quit, as he cannot since he is addicted to nicotine, you smoke every day. What kind of man cant stop smoking? I quit after 20 years with no help. Just stopped. It is not hard. This tells me he never meant to keep that promise. I predict he will be breaking bromises left and right. This will be a do-nothing presidency and the republicans will be back in power in 4 years if Obama does not get off his ass and stop following orders from the Big Brother corps who own him. How freaking hard is it to fix those damn levees? Do we do nothing because so many affected were poor and black? The same reason we do nothing for Darfur, Zimbabwe or any other area populated by mostly black people?
Kind of ironic that the left is willing to spend money on roads & bridges but at the same time wanting to get cars off the roads to save the planet. I thought they wanted more mass transit?
That's asinine. Just one example is the fact that you apparently--in your haste to score points against "the left"--don't understand that most goods (food, fuel, etc.) are shipped via trucks. Trucks need roads and bridges. And just because we would like people to use mass transit as much as possible, there are no serious voices on "the left" advocating that people stop driving altogether.
Harry, I agree wholeheartedly. I’m from tornado- and Timothy McVeigh-ravaged Oklahoma City, where federal help was swift and unequivocal. I simply cannot believe the disproportionate response when you compare those calamities and the aid response with New Orleans. It’s despicable that a major American city has been scapegoated as somehow deserving of this neglect.
I also want to congratulate you on the Grammy nom and 25 great years of Le Show.
What's missing from Obama's infrastructure plans? Multi-million dollar middle-management jobs! At least that's what some of the right-wingers at the bar said Saturday.
I had to explain to them about Barack's Saturday morning YouTube broadcasts where he gives out just a slew of information. I got a look similar to the old RCA/Victor logo.
http://www
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
