Where the Money Went -- A Followup

Responding, at least coincidentally, to the last Fantasy Assignment Desk assignment, Sunday's Times-Picayune puts one figure on the table about where the Federal money has gone in post-Katrina spending: $12 billion is accounted for in flood-insurance payments. This is an interesting figure, more than 10% of the total supposed federal figure on Katrina/Rita damage. Interesting also because the thrust of the article is cliche-busting: despite early scorn of New Orleans residents as being disdainful of flood insurance, the facts reveal that a far higher percentage of New Orleanians and Louisianans participate in the national flood insurance program than do citizens of any other state. (At the bottom of the scale: Houston.) So much of that $12 billion, though certainly not all, is paying back what the citizens of New Orleans invested in their own future. How's that, Cato Institute?