Thursday, February 19, 2009

Obama Snubs Katrina Victims once again, Nary a Peep from the Fawning Masses

First they chose to ignore Barack Obama's hypocrisy and his cold-hearted apathy toward the victims of Hurricane Katrina when he voted twice for the infamous Alaskan "Bridge To Nowhere"and specifically voted against giving that money to Katrina victims!

And now the fawning masses are ignoring the president's latest snub to the destitute victims of Katrina:

Obama recently allocated billions of dollars - money which was supposed to be used to stimulate the sagging economy - to fund a myriad of pork projects, including many of his own pet projects - but he couldn't cough up even a dime for the victims of Katrina.

Excerpted from MSNBC:
The economic stimulus signed by President Barack Obama will spread billions of dollars across the country to spruce up aging roads and bridges. But there's not a dime specifically dedicated to fixing leftover damage from Hurricane Katrina.

And there's no outrage about it.

Democrats who routinely criticized President George W. Bush for not sending more money to the Gulf Coast appear to be giving Obama the benefit of the doubt in his first major spending initiative...

"I'm not saying there won't be a need in the future, but right now the focus is not on more money, it's on using what we have," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who has criticized Democrats and Republicans alike over Katrina funding.

It's a significant change in tone from the Bush years, when any perceived slight of Katrina victims was met with charges that the Republican president... callously ignored the Gulf's needs...

Just last summer, Democrats accused Bush of putting Iraq before New Orleans when he sought to block Gulf Coast reconstruction money from a $162 billion war spending bill. Bush was pilloried for not mentioning the disaster in back-to-back State of the Union addresses.

Former Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., who helped lead the fight for Gulf aid before retiring last year, said he was surprised over the lack of Katrina money in the bill, but figures lawmakers may be granting Obama leniency due to the magnitude of the country's current economic challenges.

"Any new president is going to have a little honeymoon," said McCrery...

Thomas Langston, a Tulane University political scientist, said Democrats may be "playing nice" to keep in good favor. But dire needs remain, he said.

"Hopefully they've gotten some promises behind the scenes about longer-term commitments," Langston said. "Like most people down here, I would hate for anybody to get the impression that, 'We're good, thank you.'"

The federal government has devoted more than $175 billion to the region since Katrina ripped through New Orleans in 2005, and billions remain unspent. It's unclear how much more money will be needed, but nearly everyone agrees that the federal government should continue investing heavily in the region's levees and other infrastructure to prevent a repeat of Katrina's devastation...

There was hardly a complaint as Obama and other Democratic leaders pieced together the package. Members of the all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus, who have called Bush's Katrina funding a moral failure, said they were thrilled with the stimulus...
"We need a president that will wake up every day and ask, 'How will New Orleans be rebuilt?"
Barack Obama - July 2007


Yes indeed, I'm sure the victims of Katrina are first and foremost on Obama's mind - right after the "Alaskan Bridge To Nowhere" ....

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