See I told you so
To say that government failed the victims of Hurricane Katrina is about as obvious as saying that I will be cranky today -- it's a universal truth. But government failure, state local and federal, largely federal, is the goal of the conservatives in control of America. (When I use the term "conservative" I'm really talking about Republicans as they don't really conserve anything -- money, the environment, energy, etc.). Katrina is a political and economic windfall for W and his cronies serving dual purposes. The first is to prove government is the problem and then to profit from it. In the words of Colin Powell, first we're going to cut it off and then we're going to kill it.
Ronald Reagan dramatically increased defense spending throughout the 1980s in an effort to challenge and defend against the Soviet Union in the fourth decade of the Cold War. The spending was self-fulfilling. If the Soviets kept up with America's defense spending then the Reagan Republicans would say, "See, we had to spend all that money just to keep up with the Evil Empire." And if, as it turned out, the Soviets couldn't keep up with the spending, they would implode. "See, we spent them into oblivion." Either way the purpose of the spending would be self-fulfilling. It's a can't lose argument.
Tax cuts are another area of phony self-fulfilling argument. If the economy is not doing well -- high unemployment, low GDP growth, high interest rates, etc. -- the Republicans argue tax cuts are needed to stimulate the economy. When the economy is strong -- low unemployment, solid GDP growth, low interest rates, etc. -- Republicans argue tax cuts are returning the people's money and the government can afford to do it. It's self-fulfilling, it wins elections and why pay your bills when the government can't be forced into bankruptcy unlike Katrina victims. Hope they grabbed their last six months of pay stubs as the water rose otherwise they can't even file under the new law. And no, there is no exemption for natural disasters, thank you very much compassionate conservatives.
Today's W Republicans are not that different in the way they govern. While denouncing big government they dramatically increase its size, budget, deficit, debt, scope, power and control, they spend like a drunken Paris Hilton arguing that we need to spend to defeat terrorists and rogue regimes. If we do, it's "good thing we spent all that money to defeat them," if we don't it's "good thing we spent all that money just to keep up." Self-fulfilling. It's a can't lose argument.
With Hurricane Katrina it's the same thing. FEMA became a political dumping ground for W cronies. The current and former FEMA chiefs were college roommates. Small world. Out of all the people in America who could lead the federal agency responsible for reacting to disasters, natural and man-made, including nuclear, biological and chemical accidents and terrorism, the last two were a former W campaign manager and the other was the W campaign manager's roomie at Oklahoma. So much for the harder you work the luckier you get. The more you know the Bush family the luckier you get. So how do we fix FEMA? We privatize it! To our friends of course.
So the hurricane scenario that everyone but W could have imagined happened and New Orleans was turned into a cross between Atlantis and Lord of the Flies. Karl Rove, suffering from kidney stones, was still no doubt well enough to "focus group" his response and "the blame game" became the shibboleth of the W Republicans. It's quite a good choice of words since they see everything as a political game even the rescue of dying Americans. "See," they tell you, "government failed. Government is the problem not the solution." Of course they are the government but that's a minor detail for these people. Expand government -- translation, expand cronyism, build up the network of insiders in and out of government, spend trillions of dollars funneled through government contracts to private crony corporations, then when government fails as in Katrina, spend even more money to the same crony corporations to fix what you broke profiting two or three times for the same work. It's a mobius loop of corrupt governance.
They're from the government and they're here to help -- themselves that is.
BONUS UPDATE: FEMA Director Michael Brown just resigned. If Joe Allbaugh and "Brownie" have other roomies from college, keep your phone lines open.
Ronald Reagan dramatically increased defense spending throughout the 1980s in an effort to challenge and defend against the Soviet Union in the fourth decade of the Cold War. The spending was self-fulfilling. If the Soviets kept up with America's defense spending then the Reagan Republicans would say, "See, we had to spend all that money just to keep up with the Evil Empire." And if, as it turned out, the Soviets couldn't keep up with the spending, they would implode. "See, we spent them into oblivion." Either way the purpose of the spending would be self-fulfilling. It's a can't lose argument.
Tax cuts are another area of phony self-fulfilling argument. If the economy is not doing well -- high unemployment, low GDP growth, high interest rates, etc. -- the Republicans argue tax cuts are needed to stimulate the economy. When the economy is strong -- low unemployment, solid GDP growth, low interest rates, etc. -- Republicans argue tax cuts are returning the people's money and the government can afford to do it. It's self-fulfilling, it wins elections and why pay your bills when the government can't be forced into bankruptcy unlike Katrina victims. Hope they grabbed their last six months of pay stubs as the water rose otherwise they can't even file under the new law. And no, there is no exemption for natural disasters, thank you very much compassionate conservatives.
Today's W Republicans are not that different in the way they govern. While denouncing big government they dramatically increase its size, budget, deficit, debt, scope, power and control, they spend like a drunken Paris Hilton arguing that we need to spend to defeat terrorists and rogue regimes. If we do, it's "good thing we spent all that money to defeat them," if we don't it's "good thing we spent all that money just to keep up." Self-fulfilling. It's a can't lose argument.
With Hurricane Katrina it's the same thing. FEMA became a political dumping ground for W cronies. The current and former FEMA chiefs were college roommates. Small world. Out of all the people in America who could lead the federal agency responsible for reacting to disasters, natural and man-made, including nuclear, biological and chemical accidents and terrorism, the last two were a former W campaign manager and the other was the W campaign manager's roomie at Oklahoma. So much for the harder you work the luckier you get. The more you know the Bush family the luckier you get. So how do we fix FEMA? We privatize it! To our friends of course.
So the hurricane scenario that everyone but W could have imagined happened and New Orleans was turned into a cross between Atlantis and Lord of the Flies. Karl Rove, suffering from kidney stones, was still no doubt well enough to "focus group" his response and "the blame game" became the shibboleth of the W Republicans. It's quite a good choice of words since they see everything as a political game even the rescue of dying Americans. "See," they tell you, "government failed. Government is the problem not the solution." Of course they are the government but that's a minor detail for these people. Expand government -- translation, expand cronyism, build up the network of insiders in and out of government, spend trillions of dollars funneled through government contracts to private crony corporations, then when government fails as in Katrina, spend even more money to the same crony corporations to fix what you broke profiting two or three times for the same work. It's a mobius loop of corrupt governance.
They're from the government and they're here to help -- themselves that is.
BONUS UPDATE: FEMA Director Michael Brown just resigned. If Joe Allbaugh and "Brownie" have other roomies from college, keep your phone lines open.
posted by Crankyboy at 9:36 PM
3 Comments:
You are the Devil!
That job is already taken by Karl Rove.
Of course FEMA works under dumbya if you live in swing state in an election year. It also helps if your governor is dumbya's brother.
The Republicans are succeeding at their evil plan to turn the world's greatest power into a third world country. Louisianna has become Bangledesh. Who's next? Washington State becomes Indonesia if Mt Ranier, Adams or Baker erupt?
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