A proposed and credible solution to the New Orleans problem that is worthy of Franklin Roosevelt has been offered. Congressman Richard Baker, a Republican from Baton Rouge, has proposed a scheme for overcoming the damage inflicted upon his state that is equal to any that could be conjured up by Harry Hopkins or Harold Ickes in their heyday, and I like it.
The New York Times reports that the solution involves spending up to eighty billion dollars of your hard earned tax money to pay off mortgages on destroyed property, to restore all of the infrastructure damaged and otherwise put out of commission by Hurricane Katrina, to buy up the land littered with refuse, to clean it all up, and to sell it all to developers for renewing the city. How cool is that?
Mr. Baker is one of the foremost critics of big government in the Congress, but it’s sure nice to know that when the chips are really down he knows where to turn and what to do. Step one: stop calling the Democrats big government spenders. Step two: forget everything bad you ever said about big government. Step three: write a multi-billion dollar proposal. And step four: just to show you haven’t gone soft, call for a tax cut for the rich. (Wait, maybe the last item hasn’t been formulated yet.)
When things are really bad, it’s government that must fill the void. No other entity can step into the midst of a calamity of this magnitude and simply make the crucial things happen. We need New Orleans and the nearby ports and infrastructure, and if the feds don’t make it happen, it won’t, at least to the level required for commerce on the Mississippi and to support the people in the countryside. I really am for it all.
But I hark back not to my first public hero, FDR, but to a Republican, William Cohen of Maine, who really saw the situation with a clear eye. “Government is the enemy until you need a friend.” Mr. Baker, after a lifetime of criticism, has seen the light; he needs a friend, one with deep pockets and lots of muscle. Hallelujah! Better late than never.
Now Mr. Baker has a serious problem; he has to convince all those free market buddies of his on the right side of the aisle in both houses to support this bailout. Lord Almighty, what a chore. Well maybe it’s not quite that bad; maybe three fourths of the Democrats will support his bill and he’ll only have to convince half the majority to join him and his new allies.
It’s an ill wind that blows no good. Congressman Baker is now a supporter of big `govment’ as his hero the Gipper called it, and I suppose that he’ll be switching parties over the next few months. My goodness, these pols will do almost anything to get re-elected? I guess all his big money backers – at least those who’ll profit from the venture - will have to get that old time `Solid South’ religion too.
Don’t say the leopard can’t change his spots. For a humongous federal windfall, down there in the land of Huey they’ll paint that sucker chartreuse and make him say he likes it.
And it’s catching, Ahnold’s unveiled an almost equally ambitious New Deal program of renewal in California. The ghost of FDR is smiling.
Blog on!
Wild Bill
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The real solution to the New Orleans problem is to convince the Chinese that there is intrinsic value in the land and potentially cheap labor, therefore, making it a potentially attractive asset to further their economic expansion. By manufacturing whatever Wal-Mart needs for its shelves in New Orleans, it can undercut it's own homemade products and avoid the transportation costs. These are the same guys who built the Great Wall so don't you think that they can coolify the remaining population to clean up the mess at a fraction of the cost and turn it into a larger version of its previous self.
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