Cheney Goes About Business As Usual in New Orleans
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Today, Vice President Cheney is in the midst of a PR swing through New Orleans raising money for Republicans, but he wont be visiting any of the areas of the city that were flooded. More than one year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita much of New Orleans remains devastated and many of the area's residents have not been able to return. It seems the Bush Administration has been too distracted - either by its failed strategy in Iraq or its inability to make Americans more safe and secure - to do what's needed for Louisiana. Instead of posing for photo-ops while in town, Vice President Cheney should explain what happened to the Administration's commitment to rebuilding the Gulf Coast and to ensuring that New Orleans is not kept on the back burner.
"It's bad enough that Vice President Cheney and the Bush Administration are failing the people of the Gulf Coast who are trying to return and rebuild," said Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Stacie Paxton, "but more than a year later, it is clear that the Bush White House is more concerned with politics and PR campaigns than with governing and getting the job done. Once again the Republican Party is placing partisanship above country. Democrats want a new direction for America, one that puts our families and their security first and that helps the Gulf Coast get back on its feet once and for all."
Louisiana Democratic Party Chairman Chris Whittington agreed and said he is tired of Bush, Cheney and the entire GOP using both Katrina and Rita as a backdrop for their political agenda while the people of Louisiana continue to struggle.
"We have had enough of the GOP parading through our destroyed neighborhoods and desolated coastline playing the same party line," Whittington said. "We cannot and will not allow the Bush Administration attempt to save face with the American people at the expense of Louisiana hurricane victims who are far from recovered. We need to steer this country in a new direction and we need to do it now!"
Americans Know That Bush Has Not Done "What It Takes." Over seven days in mid-June, Kaiser sponsored a telephone survey of 1,217 adults across the nation focusing on people's attitudes toward the Katrina recovery. 70 percent of the adults surveyed across the nation said people affected by Hurricane Katrina still had not gotten the help they need. African Americans were even more skeptical; 84 percent of African Americans surveyed said those affected by Katrina had not gotten the help they need. [Times-Picayune (New Orleans), 8/9/06; Financial Times (London, England), 8/9/06; Washington Post, 8/21/06]
While Much Of New Orleans Was Still Flooded, Bush Delivered A Speech In New Orleans' Jackson Square Promising To "Do What It Takes." On September 15th, Bush, in Jackson Square, said, "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." [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050915-8.html, accessed 8/10/06]
Bush Pledged That Housing Needs Would Be Met. Bush said, "And we'll provide mobile homes, and supply them with basic services, as close to construction areas as possible, so the rebuilding process can go forward as quickly as possible." [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050915-8.html, accessed 8/10/06]
But, FEMA's Trailer Program Was A Disaster. Hurricane victims and relief workers were frustrated by the FEMA's housing program. Adam Bronstone, a relief worker assigned to coordinate post-Katrina volunteer efforts for the Jewish community, said both FEMA and the Red Cross "have done a ridiculously bad job," noting that the Federal Emergency Management Administration has delivered only 16 percent of the trailers promised to New Orleans residents whose houses were wiped out by Katrina. [Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1/10/06]
Republicans' Bad Environmental Policy Allowed 217 Square Miles to Disappear. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ripped away 217 square miles of Louisiana's fragile coastline, with each turning huge swaths of land to water overnight, accelerating a process that already posed grave threats to coastal communities, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study.[Times Picayune, 10/11/06]
