Kudos to my colleague Ali Massoud for his blog.
He deconstructs the REAL meaning of Sen. Landrieu's position, which I largely take as a negotiating ploy that may well hold sway in the increasingly irresponsible Washington these days. We must never forget whose money it is, after all.
There's a vast array of things that can be done to help our fellow citizens in the Gulf Coast. Mostly, it seems to me, I'd prefer to afford them a tax holiday and enterprise zone treatment, to give them time to rebuild. I'd also be OK with providing bounded, short term personal grants, even if that meant they decide to relocate to safer places.
Contrast this with Landrieu's schemes which, no doubt, are massive pork subsidies, that generally help fat cat, favorite son contractors. That's clearly not compassion in any meaning of that word that I'm familiar with.
And, of course, all these costs SHOULD be offset by spending cuts. Massoud's employees shouldn't pay for this tragedy. $200B -- spent or foregone over, say, 5 years -- is less than 2% of the annual federal budget.
I do, however, think we should view our fellow citizens not as "burdens," but rather as friends who've had a temporary setback. We all benefit from the work of the good people of New Orleans, home of a vitally important port to the country's economy. Ditto for the people of California, producers of so much economic abundance that the entire nation enjoys.
Louisiana is not the enemy. Sen. Landrieu is misguided. I, along with Massoud, disagree with her.
-Robert Capozzi