Bush to US - rebuilding to be paid for by the poor and middle class

President Bush gave a nice speech last night where he, as usual, uttered soundbites and failed to offer any details or meaningful proposals. Yes, there will be tax breaks for businesses, but how does that help the 20,000+ people stranded at shelters without homes or financial means? Businesses need customers, after all. Too little, too late - a real leader doesn't wait until their poll numbers go down to take action or accountability. But whoever said he was a real leader.

But more importantly, he promised that the federal government would pay for "most" of the rebuilding. My first thought was "most of it?" aren't we paying for all of it in Iraq? Granted, we didn't blow up New Orleans, so maybe that's the difference? There was an AP article today putting the cost of reconstruction and relief at $200 billion and beyond. The Bush administration acknowledged that it will be coming from the American tax payer. But while they are handing tax breaks out to business owners, they are still pushing to make Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent. So who will be paying for the FUBAR mess the government made of relief efforts? That's right, the poor and the vanishing middle class.

Even more damning is the fact that the entire disaster may have been lessened or possibly even avoided if they weren't cutting the budget to give tax breaks to millionaires. They passed the current tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans by cutting superfluous things like, oh, hurricane and flood protection programs from the budget. Then Bush got rid of taxes on stock dividends by cutting funding from the army Corp. Of engineers that they said was needed to shore up Louisiana's levee infrastructure. And he did the same thing to the corp. of engineers again this year when he needed to cut the budget to get rid of the estate taxes for the wealthiest Americans, like poor Paris Hilton.

Tax cuts for the wealthy helped cause this massive breakdown in our government response to hurricane Katrina, causing intense suffering for the poor in New Orleans and the surrounding area. And now tax cuts for the wealthy places the burden of
relief and recovery squarely on the shoulders of the poor again. Making us all victims of the Bush Administration.

posted by Sarai @ 11:16 AM