Katrina Makes the Case Against the Government

[m3talsmith_redu]

http://www.detnews.com/2005/editoria...A19-309958.htm

Quote by: from the article During a Los Angeles radio program, Ari Kelman, a history professor at the University of California, Davis, approvingly quoted a colleague as asserting that Katrina "might be our first libertarian atrocity." What he meant is that the drive to cut taxes and minimize government, fueled by libertarian sentiments, had supposedly dealt a severe blow to society's capacity to anticipate, plan for and recover from natural -- and unnatural -- disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Democrats and some Republicans are making clear they hope to use the hurricane as a rationale for refusing to extend the tax cuts enacted in 2002-03 and even launching a new poverty program in the guise of hurricane relief.

Quote by: from the article But if there is a message in Hurricane Katrina, it's not that taxes are too low. Indeed, federal tax revenue is $225 billion higher than a year ago -- and up more than 50 percent in the last decade. Federal spending has been rising fast, too: It's back up to about 19.5 percent of gross domestic product, almost exactly the average of the postwar era.

Quote by: from the article If anything, the response to Katrina helps make the libertarian case. Let's keep in mind that Katrina was the true atrocity, a gigantic storm whose effects took nearly everybody by surprise. But when the partisan hysteria abates a bit, what we are likely to find is that government at all levels failed to perform effectively. Would that be a big surprise?

Those are bits of it. Read the article; it's pretty good.

[PatrickHenry]

The Katrina catastrophe WAS a government failure. Government has expanded beyond its correct functions, and in doing so has flubbed its necessary ones.

One of government's prime functions must be public health. I am not speaking of personal medical care here, rather about maintaining and assuring a safe environment for its citizens. It is one of the few collective functions I can support. The overreaching has resulted in a loss of focus on what government needs to do. By trying to manage all things government manages to do none of them well, and some of the most important have turned into complete flops.

[m3talsmith_redu]

Here's some more cannon fodder.

[Logjam]

Quote by: PatrickHenry The Katrina catastrophe WAS a government failure. Government has expanded beyond its correct functions, and in doing so has flubbed its necessary ones. One of government's prime functions must be public health. I am not speaking of personal medical care here, rather about maintaining and assuring a safe environment for its citizens. It is one of the few collective functions I can support. The overreaching has resulted in a loss of focus on what government needs to do. By trying to manage all things government manages to do none of them well, and some of the most important have turned into complete flops.

Huh? You last paragraph doesn't make much sense to me.

But your initial statement is true. We had a disaster and government made some mistakes. It always happens in a catastrophe. Or in a battle, for that matter. Things just go wrong.

Bush, today has accepted the responsibility for problems of FEMA. However, neither the mayor nor the governor has, which they should do. The first respondant to a catastrophe must be local government. They are on sight, and they should have made plans for just such an occasion. We know that New Orleans had a detailed disaster plan and we know that it wasn't implemented. This is not Bush's fault.

We also know that the governor delayed declaring the state a disaster region and we know that she delayed action for at least 24 hours because she said she "It was a very complex situation and she didn't understand it thourghly". So she delayed her decision to take action. This was not Bush's, or FEMA's fault.

Federal aid arrived in this hurricane faster than it has in any other hurricane in recent history. Maybe in all history.

Sure people were hurt and sure things didn't work perfectly. To expect that things will work perfectly is unrealistic. Taking in consideration the nature of a catastrophe.

Bush will have a "lessons learned" study after the event is all over. He and FEMA will find problem areas in the disaster plan and seek a solution to them.

Bush has said that he accepts responsibility for errors, but the mayor and governor must as well.