Tancredo slams Katrina spending
GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Tom Tancredo (Colo.) said Friday it is “time the taxpayer gravy train left the New Orleans station” and urged an end to the federal aid to the region that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina two years ago…. “The amount of money that has been wasted on these so-called ‚Äö√Ñ√≤recovery’ efforts has been mind-boggling,” said Tancredo, who is running a long-shot presidential campaign. “Enough is enough.”…. Citing administration figures, the lawmaker said that $114 billion has been spent on the effort to rebuild a large stretch of the Gulf Coast after the storm hit New Orleans in August 2005 and claimed more than 1,600 lives…. “At some point, state and local officials and individuals have got to step up to the plate and take some initiative,” said Tancredo. “The mentality that people can wait around indefinitely for the federal taxpayer to solve all their worldly problems has got to come to an end.”…. The lawmaker criticized in particular the amount that has been wasted through fraud and abuse, estimated at $1 billion…. “This whole fiasco has been a perfect storm of corruption and incompetence at all levels,” he added.
I suppose it was just a matter of time before some mean-spirited Republican picked up on the “fact” that billions of taxpayer dollars are going to lazy, shiftless Katrina survivors whose idea of hard work is sucking on the public teat. I mean, come on…it’s been TWO YEARS. Isn’t it about time these lazy bastards got over themselves and their victimhood and put their lives back together?
Yep, here we are, two years post-Katrina, and it seems that some segments of the Republican Party feel as if the areas impacted by the hurrican have received more than enough public money, thank you. In this case, it’s former (and perennial) DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), who seems to have forgotten (if he ever really knew) what the concept of the social contract is all about.
No, I’m not about to argue with Tancredo’s assertion that phenomenal amounts of federal money has been lost to fraud and corruption. Does that ipso facto mean that we should simply abandon New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities laid waste by Katrina? Do we simply abandon a major American city and the surrounding area to the privations of the free market- which is responsible for a good deal of the corrpution and waste?
Why is it that Tancredo and those who think as he does have no problem with sinking untold billions into a pointless, never-ending war of aggression in Iraq? Yet when it comes to rebuilding and restoring New Orleans and the Gulf Coast- our own country- there seems to be neither the will nor the available funds. We literally have a Third World country in our midst, and yet Tancredo figures we’ve spent enough money on those lazy, ungrateful slugs…especially when that money could be far better spent subsidizing oil company stockholders.
Why does compassion seem as if it’s always the first casualty of Republican policy initiatives? And why doesn’t someone call out Tom Tancredo for being the mean-spirited, heartless troll he is? If we can continue pouring billions down the rat-hole that is Iraq, then why can’t we find the money and the wherewithal to help our own people get back on their feet? If we have enough money to kill thousands of Iraqis, you’d think we’d somehow be able to find enough money to help thousands of Americans.
Then again, that’s just too much like welfare, ain’t it??
