Of course, a little financial responsibility and the money would have been there anyway. You can have my tax cut.
With all due respect, Keith, I don't think the tax cut was the reason the levies weren't built better. I think that point has been made by other posters better than I could make it. I can only add that every serious economist predicts, and every example tried, shows that tax cuts lead to increased revenues. This has been proven multiple times here in the US as well as overseas in Iceland, Ireland, Estonia (I think; one of the Baltic republics has surged ahead in their economic development by lower taxes, establishing strong rules of law regarding business and getting the government out of business.)
Who expected a levee to fail? Only anybody who had paid attention, those predictions were not exactly secret.
And who would have been responsible for correcting the deficiencies? Would one not start with the mayor and govenor? Our federalist structure should have called for that as the starting point. If these levies were not sufficient for a Cat. 4 or above storm, which seems to be what everyone says, then wouldn't you, as mayor or govenor, be fighting, lobbying, yelling, politicing for the funds to get them built to a safer level? And wouldn't you fight to get the funds at the state and federal level? I'm positive you would done such.
David
H20
As for the tax cuts being the source of the only recently raised revenue, I've read there is a split on that. Other events, such as deadlines for certain businesses declaring certain revenues have come due, also adding to the amount. Also, given the timetable for the tax cuts the benefits have taken longer to materialize, which might make some question whether they are directly responsible. Analysts who don't have an agenda to push say more time needs to pass to see what the source is and the effect. Analysts on the left will say no effect frorm tax cuts. I tend to go with the need more analysis approach. The red ink is still substantial, and the deficit predictions do not include the conflict in Iraq. So, will the revenue increase the cuts produce be equal or more than the revenue they removed from the system? I guess we'll see. But the level of pork being added to just about any bill these days doesn't help either. You can still have my tax cut - more because I know it hasn't changed my spending habits (ie no extra benefit to the ecomony from me), and I'd rather have it go to infrastructure needs that this country has. BTW you seemed to blame the Big Dig..
The levees have been under constant upgrade and repair for many years (30?) under the Army Corps of Engineers, until '03-'04 when the budget axe fell on it. So the local and federal authorities were aware and working on it until the money went thin. Without proof otherwise, I wouldn't presume to say that the locals did not continue to be concerned or continue to lobby to get funding and work restored. I'm also not sure what happens when locals try to barge in on Army Corps of Engineers projects, fully funded or not.
Also, not necessarily for this particular repsonse, but in general, timelines indicate that a state of emergency was declared by the governor on Friday, 8/26. States of emergencies were declared by the N.O. mayor and Mississippi governor on Saturday, 8/27. Bush also declared a state of emergency on 8/27.
