Posted on 01/29/2006 6:51:06 AM PST by Uncle Sham
Political Horizons for Jan. 29
Baker’s relief bill deserves try
By JOHN LAPLANTE
Published: Jan 29, 2006
Ford to City: Drop Dead,” a legendary headline screamed in 1975, when a president refused to bail out New York City from financial disaster.
Change the president and the locale, and Louisiana hurricane victims might be forgiven for thinking the same thing.
After hemming and hawing for months about U.S. Rep. Richard Baker’s home-buyout bill, and never really saying what he had against it, Bush brushed it aside last week.
Only after aides revealed his opposition did Bush grant a one-paragraph explanation. It amounted to three things: Don’t create more bureaucracy; we already gave you people lots of money; and Louisiana doesn’t have a plan.
Baker and Gov. Kathleen Blanco countered the Baker bill is so important it amounts to “the plan.”
Blanco said she only really controls $6.2 billion in recovery money that will be stretched far too thin to aid owners of 200,000 destroyed or damaged homes.
She said opposing bureaucracy is an odd argument for any federal officials to make.
What she should argue is that Baker’s bill is a plan for people, not politicians.
Yes, the bill would set up a new bureaucracy called the Louisiana Recovery Corp., but this is not an open-ended promise to hand out money to politicians or write checks to the idle.
The LRC is supposed to be a hard-nosed business proposition. It would pay willing homeowners some, but not all, of the equity in their homes.
If they have a mortgage, the agency would pay it off, giving lenders back some, but not all, of their investment.
The agency would clean up the property and, working with local interests, market it to investors for redevelopment.
The LRC should take some decisions from politicians and give them to homeowners. They could take less and get on with their lives or keep their property in hopes of working out a better deal some other way. The agency would not take land against the owners’ will.
The corporation could transform many homeowners from helpless victims to people with some hope for the future. It could block a wave of foreclosures that might wipe out tens of thousands of families’ finances.
It could help head off statewide economic stagnation and spur speedy, organized recovery for communities that must come back for the state to recover.
Baker said he’s not giving up. He sees support in both chambers of Congress and says he has passed significant legislation over Bush’s objection before. But the opposition of a president whose party controls Congress is a major setback.
In fairness to Bush, Louisiana leaders made it easy for him to so casually shrug off the bill.
Our U.S. senators tried to grab $250 billion on sympathy instead of catalogued needs. The governor and Legislature found money for political projects during the crisis and so far have done little to adjust state government to the vastly different needs. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin famously made blackness, not prosperity, his top goal.
Some Louisiana leaders also exude an air of entitlement, even arrogance, demanding Washington immediately turn over as much taxpayer money as the state demands.
The Baker bill is not another toy for Louisiana politicians to play with or a well-intentioned program for them to screw up. It should actually bypass the politicians by dealing mostly with residents and bankers and developers.
Bush would appoint the managers of the agency, with Blanco suggesting only two. The U.S. treasury secretary would have final say over how much money the agency can borrow.
The bill is founded in Baker’s long expertise in the complexities of housing finance and the federal government’s long interest in affordable homes as a big part of the American dream.
Baker’s bill also is complex and in some ways unprecedented, and who knows how wily politicians, lawyers or speculators might try to abuse it?
Baker says he is willing to compromise. He should be. Louisiana is asking the nation to take a huge risk by borrowing up to $30 billion. Limits and controls are appropriate to minimize the chance of abuse.
Risks and reservations should not sink the bill without a proper airing.
The idea is worth more than months of foot-shuffling and a sudden brush-off by the president.
The 200,000 families that might directly benefit from it, and the 4.5 million Louisiana residents affected by their state’s continued crisis, deserve a hearing.
John LaPlante is Capitol bureau editor for The Advocate.
Well, not to be nit picky but he didn't admit to any fraud. I am aware that he admitted they inflated the numbers "to deter crime". Not sure that's how I would have handled things but if there is anything criminal in what they did then prosecute them. I have no problem with that. Believe me the Feds are looking hard at everything down here and if there is anything there they will go after it.
Lousyana has made a spectical of itself from top to bottom.
From BLANK-O's whining, blubbering and spending $550,000 on her office renovations to Nagin's Chocolatetown statement, the state has made an utter ass of itself for the last 5 months.
I'm sure the rest of the country is looking at us as one would a retarded cousin.
Here's a LA family with some smarts:
Katrina evacuees settle into new life
By KAREN OGDEN
Tribune Enterprise Editor
Almost five months after they struggled through waist-deep floodwaters in Violet, La., the Kramer family is tentatively putting down roots in Great Falls.
"Everything is looking good," said Tracey Kramer, who arrived in northcentral Montana days after Hurricane Katrina with his wife, Jean, and their youngest son, William. "We're just pressing forward and thank God that we came this far. I'm just looking forward to a new year and a better year."
The family is grieving the death of Kramer's 86-year-old mother, Mildred, who was among the nearly three dozen patients who drowned as floodwaters swamped the St. Rita's Nursing Home.
Kramer is still waiting for officials at a morgue in Carville, La., to finish DNA testing to identify and release her body. He will then return home to plan a funeral with his siblings.
In the meantime, the family is focused on starting over.
Tracey and Jean, who are retired, are looking to buy a house in Great Falls.
The Kramers are luckier than many: Their insurance covered the flood damage to their house in Violet, roughly 20 miles south of New Orleans. Although the home is structurally sound, it would have to be gutted to make it livable because of water damage and mold.
"I don't feel that it would be wise for me to take all our money and go back down there and redo our house," said Kramer, who plans to salvage what he can when he goes home. "I already made up my signs: 'for sale as is.'"
More violent storms are predicted this year, Kramer added. One team of meteorologists at Colorado State University's Tropical Meteorology Project predicts nine hurricanes in 2006.
"I think we're going to stay here and invest my money in Great Falls," said Kramer, who as a young man was an airman stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
Jean is from Conrad and has a sister, Cathy Christiaens, in Valier. Another sister, Mary Lee Berry, lives in Whitefish.
The Kramers' two sons, Edward and William, are finding it more difficult to get jobs and housing in Great Falls.
William, 35, who came to Montana with his parents, worked security at Bally's Casino, which floated on Lake Pontchartrain. Katrina smashed the building against the wharf.
He's applying for detention officer and security jobs, but he is having little luck because his references and employment records were destroyed or scattered in the hurricane.
Now he's looking into general labor jobs and possibly renewing his qualifications as a certified nursing assistant.
His older brother and sister-in-law, Edward and Bonnie, arrived in Great Falls a month after the storm to join the family.
Their homeowner insurance did not cover their flood losses.
Edward, who was a head technician for a Goodyear Tires store in Louisiana, is still looking for work.
Asked if he's angry about his family's ordeal, Tracey Kramer directs his frustration at Louisiana's congressional delegation, as he did in the weeks after Katrina.
Area residents lobbied for years for the Army Corps of Engineers to close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, which is blamed by some for flooding St. Bernard Parish.
"If they'd have fought hard enough to close that thing up, I am positive our hometown wouldn't have been destroyed," Kramer said.
The family is looking into joining a possible class action lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers over the outlet failure.
Kramer follows the debate over the canal, as well as developments in his hometown, on the Internet.
But he's focusing on his new life in Great Falls.
"I'm just looking forward for a healthier new year," he said. "... I'm not only talking for us, I'm talking for the whole world because we definitely need it."
Yes, as a taxpayer, I would like an answer to that question. I have to pay for homeowners insurance on my house. Why are you telling me that I should pay off someone else's mortgage when their homeowners insurance should do that?
That is ust not true. Ever since 1967 the corp of engineers has yearly predicted that a direct hit by a category 3 or higher hurricane would destroy New Orleans and much of the surrounding territory.
In 1967 the Corp of Engineers proposed, congress passed and the Lyndon Johnson signed a bill to build a Levy system that would handle up to and including a level 5 hurricane.
Some Democrats were very angry about the so called destruction of natural habitat of assorted fishes and water bugs this new levy system would cause. Environmentalists brought a suit in federal court that was decided by judges appointed by Democratic presidents. The judges decided that the upgrade of the levies would harm the environment, wetlands, and assorted species. The Levy construction autorized by the bill was forbiden by the court.
"Last I recall, a corrupt Levee Commission was in charge of the levees, and was more interested in building casinos than improving levees."
The Commission does not engineer and build levee protection, that jurisdiction falls squarely on the U.S Army Corp of Engineers.
Does the Levee Commission let the bidding for projects?
And, once again, they were more interested in casinos than levees.
Homeowners insurance does not pay for flood damage from rising waters. A lot of the homes destroyed were in areas that were not considered flood zones so they were told by insurers and mortgage companies that flood insurance was not required. Therefore they had no insurance that would cover their loss. Could they have bought flood insurance anyway? Sure, but that's a different argument.
This is not a "gift". It is a loan which would be repaid as properties are redeveloped.
"This is not a "gift". It is a loan which would be repaid as properties are redeveloped."
Bulls*&t again from you. Would LOUSYANA pay or would they renege as they're trying to do with what they now owe FEMA?
Well, seeing that Bush is ultimately responsible for everything that happens in LA, and their politicians are absolutely blamless and brainless, not to mention hateful and decieptful, it is no wonder he is holding up the plan! We needs enough Federal carpenters to rebuild the city. He is still looking for Federal school bus drivers to take command of Naggin's buses. : )
I believe wholeheartedly there was and is corruption on the Levy Commission that needs to be cleaned up immediately. However, I believe there was and is a lack of Federal oversight for that commission. And this is the crux........Must the citizens of the Metropolitan area of New Orleans suffer because the Federal Government lacked oversight for the building of our levy protection system. Where does the buck stop? It always stops at the Federal level.
Why should I , a US taxpayer, help pay billion$ to rebuild NO when everyone knows it is certain to flood again. The idiots who built the place below sea level and then expect it to remain flood-protected, were nothing more than the same corrupt RATs who are still in charge in the State and City.
>>I have a plan for you. Move to higher ground.
<*DING!*><*DING!*><*DING!*>
We have a winner!
Short of much more compelling reasons than I have seen, I am really uninterested in throwing huge amounts of Federal (our) money at rebuilding a coastal/hurricane-prone location with an elevation that starts with a "-".
"wide-spread Congressional support..." immediately causes this to be a bad idea.
Why to the wealth-redistributors (aka, Democrats, aka Liberals, aka, Socialists) always want to throw OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY to those whose votes they want to buy, when the entitlements' recievers make NO effort to take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY to improve their situation?
Those are flat out 'misstatement' of the facts.
You'll also note that neither of LA's two fine senators has introduced any accompanying Bailout Bill.
So please stop the 'spin'. There is 'no wide spread support' and the 'Bush Administration' didn't hold up anything. This 'thing' is winding it's way through Congress, like all Bills. And hopefully it will die were all bad bills do, in some 'obscure' committee.
BTW, From another comment of yours further down, I think you might want to read up on Federalism and the real role of the Federal Government (hint - it isn't a 24/7/365 ATM for States, nor to save people from the boobs THEY themselves elected into office).
yeah, we know the plan... me, me, me... and screw the taxpayers footing the bill... NOLA and the rest of LA can stew, as far as this taxpayer is concerned. You decided to live in a swamp, or closer to the ocean than nature allows!
"Why should I , a US taxpayer, help pay billion$ to rebuild NO when everyone knows it is certain to flood again."
Please see post #30. If Lousiana has its way you will pay whether you want to or not. But just to reiterate: It is beginning to dawn on Lousiana that we have the Nation literally over a barrel. Our Natural Resources are such that we can tax our way out of our own peril and have the Nation pay the tab at the pumps. This idea is beginning to take root here as our Federal government refuses to own up to it's share of responsibility in their failed Levy protection system. I give a lot of credit for this idea to some very astute politicians in the State of Lousiana.
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