THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE--federal relief $$$ divvied=$425,000 per person

THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE The idea of using federal money to rebuild cities is the quintessential liberal vision. And given the dreadful results in New Orleans, we can say that the government's billions spent so far represents the quintessential failure of that liberal vision, says Lawrence Kudlow, host of CNBC's Kudlow & Company.

So far, the federal government has spent $127 billion (including tax relief) on post-Katrina New Orleans. The entire gross domestic product (GDP) of the state of Louisiana is only $141 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. If the relief money had been divvied up among residents, the $127 billion would come to $425,000 per person. So the cash spent there nearly matches the entire state's GDP, says Kudlow. And to make matters worse, by all accounts New Orleans isn't even fixed. Further, according to an article by Nicole Gelinas at the Manhattan Institute:

New Orleans has earned the distinct honor of becoming the murder capital of the world. The murder rate is 40 percent higher than before Katrina and twice as high as other dangerous cities like Detroit, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C. Right from the start, New Orleans should have been turned into a tax-free enterprise zone, says Kudlow. No income taxes, no corporate taxes, no capital-gains taxes. The only tax would have been a sales tax paid on direct transactions. A tax-free New Orleans would have attracted tens of billions of dollars in business and real-estate investment. This in turn would have helped rebuild the cities, schools and hospitals. Private-sector entrepreneurs would have succeeded where big-government bureaucrats and regulators have so abysmally failed.

Source: Lawrence Kudlow, "The Big Easy's Billion Dollar Boondoggle," Townhall.com, August 30, 2007.

http://townhall.com/columnists/LawrenceKudlow/2007/08/30/the_big_easys_billion_dollar_boondoggle?page=full&comments=true

What specific dispute do you have with the numbers?

For starters, the fact that there isn't $425,000 in my bank account.

The CBO has documented a figure south of $100B, as of August 1. That sum is spread over 3 states. A big chunk of it is claims on the national flood insurance program, for which policyholders pay premiums (nice of the govt. to count that). Aditionally, since the majority of the disaster in NOLA was caused by the Feds in the first place, it seems fair that they should pay to fix the consequences of their screw-ups.

Coastal Louisiana annually puts $10 Billion into the Federal treasury from oil & gas royalties, alone. Further, for years the State of Louisiana has been owed payment of a portion of those royalties to address our vanishing coastline and wetlands (caused by the drilling which produces the royalties), and which has been our protection against storms); but neither the Clinton nor Bush administrations signed off on the bill since Congress passed the law in the mid-1990s. When our senators and representatives in DC have requested funds for rebuilding infrastructure, hospitals and schools, they have been short-changed. Apart from the crook Jefferson, we have a junior delegation without much clout, and the funds are going to rebuild Iraq and to pet projects of politicians elsewhere.

This is a man-made disaster: the Federal government created the welfare-dependent underclass. The Federal Government designed and built shoddy flood control structures. The levees were built during the Johnson administration and maintained through Bush 2. Both parties have given us the finger over the decades, but it is especially galling to write a huge check to the IRS in April and see most of it go elsewhere, rather than to our own community; especially since the Feds caused this mess.

Compounding the problem are the insurance companies who are fighting the payout of claims tooth and nail. Two years after the storm, my parents have not seen a dime of the funds supposedly allocated to reimburse homeowners for the Federal Flood (my father died in February). My wife's parents are not back in their house; they have received -0- from their insurance company. Finally, they had to file suit. This is a common situation. The insurance companies are now charging staggering premiums and making record profits. This has stalled the housing industry, which, in turn, adversely affects the local economy, forcing our friends and neighbors to move away. Such is the mendacity and greed of our way of life.

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