Katrina Corruption Watch #3
But, but we surely can’t allow the people of Louisiana and the other affected areas to be the subject of “conservative experiments” in the use of the federal money!
After all, Honesty, Accountability, Pesonal Responsibility? Are these what we really want? How can anyone expect this of these poor people?
The Democrats have spent three decades breeding this out of the people of New Orleans. Even the “leaders” there are no longer capable of them.
No, what they really need are massive continued handouts, with no results expected, just as they have had there for 30 plus years of Democratic rule.
As to those in other states, who were able to deal with the storm so much better because of better planning, better execution and simply far more competent leadership? Well, they’re just ungrateful types who refused to make themselves wards of the welfare state.
Where the hell is Elliot Ness when we need him. And Sidd, 30 years??? I do believe the dummycraps have been in power since Andy Jackson liberated them in 1812. Huey Long must be clapping and laughting in his grave!!!
No receipts for 97% of fifteen-point-four million awarded to subcontractors on 19 major projects?
Even the most amateurish pretense of bookkeeping could produce far better results than that. Mistakes of that magnitude can only be deliberate. I agree, Texmann. Huey Long would have been proud.
At present, I expect that no less than fifty percent of that $200 billion will be wasted and/or pocketed, unless it is managed by someone with at least a faint interest in doing his job properly.
GRRR!
Come on, Old Cat.
Feds supply monies and locals control projects, that’s just the way the system works, for all Federal Matching Funds projects. The fact that it took this long for the missing funds to be noticed does not speak well for either local or federal accounting.
If you are saying that Washington should control the money now appropriated for Katrina rebuilding, that has both good & bad points.
The good point is the the Louisiana Dem Old Boy Network will not be quite so quick to get their on it. The bad point, of course, is that we will wind up with liberal style projects, since the bureaucrats will always tend toward housing projects, instead of homes, and toward big-government central control, instead of flexibility.
Perhaps local control with much closer federal scrutiny would be a good compromise.OOoops. I was torn between saying “...Old Boy Network will not be quite so quick to get their hands/claws on it.”
In the end I forgot to put anything in there.Can you imagine using the same methods as the government to keep tract of your bank account?
Posted by piccalo
09/18/2005 at 02:17 PM
Can you imagine using the same methods as the government to keep tract of your bank account?
I can only dream that the bank would do that. I really need some slack there.
Old Cat;
I already acknowledged the poor accounting on the part of both State and Federal authorities. Such sloppy work does not speak well of either level of government.
However, it does not change the fact that projects within the states are controlled by the states. Even the “Interstate” Highways are state projects. You can see this easily if you drive on I80 and note the sudden change in paving and repair when you cross the Ohio/Pennsylvania border.
In the end, if those funds had been spent properly, it is likely New Orleans would not be in the condition it now is, and an untold number of folks would not be either dead or destitute.
I’ll go with ACCOUNTABILITY. You somehow manage to rip off or redirect project funds, you go to jail.
Oh, and projects, liberal or otherwise, don’t end with elections or shifts in Congressional majorities. We’re still carrying lots of LBJ’s “Great Society” programs to this day. Some have been modified, as the previous incumbent did, but I think the GOP Congress had a lot to do with that.
Good point on local authorities allocating where Federal spending goes. Despite whatever provisions are attached, they are often ignored and the money redirected to ‘pet projects’. The N’awlins Levee Commission was well known for exactly that. Levee funds went into parks and casino gambling infrastructure.
We’re going to be paying for that...again.
Old Cat;
As much as I believe the the more local the government, the more likely it is to be held accountable by the people, I do think that rules changes are needed. Perhaps an in-state office of the GAO for every state that is engaged in a Federal Matching Funds project?
Maybe we can use it to give jobs to all those IRS types after we switch to a flat, or national sales tax? Imagine the good ol’ boys trying to justify a new Crown Vic to someone who won’t let you deduct your new heart?
Corrupt is corrupt. Nothing is out of bounds. I’m thinking that federal funds might be easier and less monitored, but these folks would steal the coins off a dead man’s eyes.
I’d guess that it’s been taken from them as much or more as from anytihng else. Do you have any idea how much money the poor are worth? Take a look at what Air America did “borrowing” that money from a charitable outfit that was supposed to be helping poor children. There’s lots of money in poverty programs and lots of ways to steal it.
Huh?
I’ll buy that. It does, however, make the “administrators” rich.
