Two years ago, Louisiana was hit by Katrina, the most expensive and devastating hurricane in our nation's history. Both the levees and our emergency responders were woefully unprepared, and New Orleans continues to suffer. At the time, while President Bush and Congress were at a loss as to where to find the monies necessary to start the repairs, I wrote an open letter to my representatives in Congress - Messrs Shays, Dodd, and Lieberman - suggesting that Congress give back its earmarks as a down payment on repairing New Orleans.
Earlier in that summer of 2005, Congress had passed an omnibus transportation bill which included over 6,000 earmarks - including the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska - but no money to fix levees in New Orleans or bridges in Minnesota.
Last year, during my campaign for US Senate, I argued that earmarks - those specially requested favors which sail through the budget with little public scrutiny - were fueling the culture of corruption in Congress. Jack Abramoff once called Congress an "earmarks favor factory." Back in 1994, Speaker Newt Gingrich saw earmarks as a handy way for vulnerable incumbents to hand out favors to party favorites. The number of earmarks soared from the hundreds, to 4,126 during Gingrich's first year as Speaker, to 15,877 during the Republicans' last year in control of the House and Senate.
Soon after the Democrats took over the House and Senate last November, Republican Senator Ted "Bridge to Nowhere" Stevens confronted fellow Republican Senator Tom "anti-earmark" Coburn: "Well, Tom, I hope you're satisfied for helping us lose the election."
Coburn responded (per his website), "No, Ted, you lost us the election," as Senator Bridge to Nowhere had become the poster boy for the corrosive old-boy network which was so quick to dole out political patronage yet so slow to reinforce the levees in water-soaked New Orleans.
DCCC Chair Rahm Emanuel helped lead the Democrats to victory last November as the party of reform. Last week he wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled, "Don't Get Rid of Earmarks." In his defense, Congress did recently pass some half-measures which make the earmark process somewhat more transparent. But all these half-measures do is hand the issue right back to Republicans, who gleefully point to earmarks like the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center - bringing the weather-predicting hedgehog to Washington to highlight Congressional mischief.
Democrats were elected to challenge business as usual and propose bold reforms in health care and energy. But if we can't get the little things right, no one will trust us to take on the big issues confronting our country.
On this, the two year anniversary of the devastation of Katrina, I say it again: give it back, give back those corrupting earmarks and finally start rebuilding the levees, rebuilding the communities of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and rebuilding America.
(Originally posted at NedLamont.com.)
It looks to me like Bill Kristol and others of his ilk successfully managed to drown our government in the proverbial bathtub after all. I think of that every time I think of New Orleans.
In response to South House, I think it is more important to get rid of lobbyists -- the earmarks will follow when there is no one to reward. Term limits are worth considering, but many of our best statesmen (as well as some of our worst) have been there for multiple terms and do good work. The line item veto, though, should never be given to someone like GWB. It gives the legislating portion of our government to one person, which was never intended.
Are you going to rebuild NO at the current elevations? I saw last night where a NO police officer had moved back into his house after having gutted most of the home. The home experienced 10 feet of inundation. He was one of only two on his block who intended to rebuild in the flood prone area at the same elevation.
The levee rehab will not be completed until 2011. When completed, it will only protect for conditions associated with a moderate Cat 3 hurricane. Redevelopment is rebuilding for another disaster.
The editor of the Times-Picayune was on the tube two nights ago and mentioned that the areas where the levees broke after Katrina appeared stronger than before - yet there are miles of levee and miles of opportunity for just a minor undermining during a surge to cause the catastrophic flooding we saw in 2005.
Why does no one discuss the fallacy of rebuilding areas that experienced 10-20 feet of toxic flood waters. Even the residents who are afraid to return understand that they will be returning to a dangerous situation. At least they can be commended for realizing now that touting the protection of the levees as safe is myth.
Why can't the voices desiring redevelopment of NO speak to these practicalities as well?
Maybe start by referencing this:
http://dels.nas.edu/dr/docs/burkett.pdf
.
NO!
They are all career politicians, whose main ambition in life is suck at the public teat and get a gold-plated pension.
Interest of the people??
PERISH THE THOUGHT!!
Here are three things America needs to do in order to get back on the track of greatness and - no less - decency:
1. Term limits (2 - TWO terms) for ALL politicians, not just the President.
2. Line item veto for the President.
3. Kill the "ANCHOR-BABY" law. If your parents are not LEGAL in America, neither are you.
(As a fourth, allow foreign-born citizens to become
President. It is already OK for State Governors).
Think about it, and tell me what's wrong with this plan.
And Hi Ned, from a college classmate! One of the highlights of the reunion last year in Cambridge was the live conversation we were able to have with you from the campaign trail in CT. And I agree-- you wuz robbed!!
I also agree with your assertions about New Orleans, which is my home town. If we can find the money to rebuild infrastructures in the U.S. that are destroyed by earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, tornados, and the seasonal floodings of our largest rivers, then dammit, we can find the money to fix the leevees.
The problem is that earmarks have been kept under the radar and hidden away by the Republicans where they can't be seen or understood. And their attribution has also been muddied so that you can't tell just who was responsible for placing a particular earmark in an essential pieces of (unrelated) legislation.
The real problem is that earmarks are in the wrong place. Transportation earmarks should be part of comprehensive transportation funding bills. Education earmarks should be out in the open and discussed as part of education appropriation legislation. "Defense" earmarks in particular need greater transparency and be part of defense appropriations legislation.
All discussed, negotiated, evaluated and if deemed important enough to fund, made part of the appropriate legislation, at the appropriate time, and with an assurance that we have sufficient funds available for the programs without having to borrow the money from Saudi, from China, or from future generations.
I would like to see some figures about how much earmarks are costing us. Mr. Lamont states that they went from hundreds before Republicans got control of the House, to many, many thousands recently. That fact certainly does sound like a waste of our money, and an indictment of Republican corruption.
How much is needed to rebuild the New Orleans levees and the rest of the South devastated by the hurricanes of two years ago? Whether or not the rebuilding of our country can be done by getting rid of earmarks, it still needs to be done. How many months or weeks of funding Bush's Iraq war could be traded for funding the repairs needed as a result of Bush's failure to prepare for Katrina? (By the way, Congress approved the funds to reinforce the levees years before Katrina struck, but Bush didn't feel it was right to spend money fixing America.)
I would like to see the failures of the Republican led government righted. I hope that there are enough honorable Republicans, willing to work with the Democratic majority, to get the job done.
now new Orleans waste of money will not be rebuilt right and dike will fail again .
money down the drain. fly over new Orleans it is below the water line.
most corrupt city in America and we treat it like we cannot live without it.
Disagree with you on this one Ned. The elitists in America don’t care about those black folks in that city. The city that needs buried under water is wash dc. And then moved to middle Missouri and two new parties started and then send all the lobbyists to Iraq to ride around in humvees so these guys in this you tube video can take shots at them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ISQWsezxLM&mode=related&search=
Every one that signs up as a lobbyist in the new capital in middle Missouri must ride around in a humvee for 14 months. This will give them a whole new appreciation for imperialism and blood for oil. They might even get a chance to kill a few Iraq women and children. Then when they get back they can have bragging rights about what heroes they are like the Vietnam vets. Mc Cain a true American hero that bombed women and children in nam. Don’t worry they were just gooks.
They need not worry we will buy them a new set of legs and a beer if they need them.
"fly over new Orleans it is below the water line."
Yes, folks, THAT is called a "sentence".
So...if no one flew over NO it would no longer be "below the water line"? (Often called "sea level".)
Problem solved!
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