Lack Of Presidential Leadership To Blame (published 9/27/05)

I believe it was FDR who said, “The ideal of government is not only to respond to today’s crisis but to anticipate and thwart tomorrow’s” By this measure the Bush administration has once again failed miserably.

First it was Iraq. While the merit of the invasion continues to be debated, even the staunchest hawk must admit that this administrations inability to plan, prepare and strategize for the eventual occupation and subsequent exit of Iraq has cost this country thousands of lives and billions of dollars.

Now we have Katrina, the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history. I’m not blaming the president for the weather, (although if God were as firmly aligned with Republican policy, as Bush claims, I believe the storm would have stayed at sea).

I’m not blaming the president for the blunders of FEMA. When it’s all said and done there will be plenty of blame on both sides of the aisle for the ill-conceived crisis response.

The blame that falls squarely on Bush’s shoulders and only Bush’s shoulders is for the lock of presidential leadership that allowed this catastrophe to occur in the first place.

For years it has been known that the levee system in New Orleans would not withstand the fury of a level 4 or 5 hurricane. For years the Army Corps of Engineers has reported that $70-80 million was needed to secure the levees for storms of that intensity. For years the Bush administration has refused to fund the project.

It was more important for George W. Bush to provide tax cuts than it was to provide safety. We can only wonder what other infrastructure projects have been denied because of this president’s desire to reduce the tax responsibility of wealthy Americans.

For the past six years Bush has consistently reduced revenues and crippled the government by giving tax breaks to his wealthy friends. He has even directed the IRS, on two occasions, to provide additional tax rebates, claiming the government had more money than it needed.

Rather than choose what was best for this country and direct those funds to needed projects like the levee system in New Orleans, Bush chose what was best for his political party and tried buying votes for a few hundred dollars each.

While the talking heads on a.m. radio rejoiced at the return of “their” money, many Democrats worried that the loss of critical funding was not only short-sighted but a dangerous decision. Sadly their concerns have proven correct.

Republicans now are out en masse, requesting that we recognize the human suffering left by hurricane Katrina and refrain from politicizing the event. Strange how Republicans didn’t mind politicizing Vietnam when they thought it provided them an advantage over John Kerry’s presidential run. They also didn’t object to politicizing the war in Iraq when they declared a premature victory.

In this case there is no need to politicize Bush’s record. The facts speak for themselves.

We are now compiling the largest deficits in U.S. history. There is a repeated undercurrent from Iraq that we are running this war on the cheap. Reports show soldiers in battle without the proper armor for themselves or their vehicles.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld continues to deny Pentagon requests for the resources they need to win the war, and some would argue the war itself has been perpetuated by his administration’s belief it should be fought economically.

To add to this, the cost of Katrina is now being estimated in hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives. While extreme can never be controlled, this was a crisis which easily could have been avoided had we taken the proper precautions. At least it would have been easy for a competent leader.