Don't Cry for Me, Katrina

Don’t Cry for Me, Katrina

As Democrats, let’s be careful not to fall into the trap of trying to make use of the tragedy of Katrina to score cheap political points against the Bush administration. Really, there’s no need to point out the administration’s failings, which were both legion AND highly visible thanks to extensive press coverage. The Bush spin-machine, in its attempts to absolve itself of blame for its fatally slow response to the disaster, will likely come off as increasingly shrill and petty. Why risk portraying Democrats as equally self-serving?

No, it strikes me as a better strategy to instead emphasize the disastrous economic policies of the Bush administration (which themselves are now inextricably linked to the Katrina disaster). Here we have an administration that, in its pandering to the very wealthiest, as well as its throwing money down the bottomless pit of the Iraq War, has potentially robbed the country of the wherewithal to ride out the dire economic consequences of an unexpected crisis such as Hurricane Katrina.

Even before Hurricane Katrina hit, the U.S. Congress was on a budget-busting spending spree of unprecedented scope. As David Broder reported in a recent column (9/12/05) in the Sioux City Journal, the Bush administration has quietly presided over Congress’ running up “a stunning $3 trillion in additional debt in [the past] four years”! Meanwhile, the tab for the Iraq War grows exponentially, with no visible end in sight. As a recent mailing from the American Friends Service Committee estimates, EVERY single household in America is currently liable for about $1500 in Iraq War-related expenses. That figure is likely to at least double before war’s end.

Economics, too, help explain the unprecedented tragedy of Katrina. As we now know all too well, it “pays” to be wealthy in America in times of disaster. The vast majority of those who suffered most in Katrina’s wake were the economically disadvantaged: persons who could not afford to leave the affected areas, and persons whose limited life circumstances and lack of experience made it psychologically difficult to leave the neighborhoods that traditionally represented comfort and security for them. It should therefore not escape notice that the two states most devastated by Katrina – Mississippi (at 17.9%) and Louisiana (at 16.9%) – ranked third and fifth, respectively, in terms of the states with the highest poverty levels in 2003 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004).

In fact, shouldn’t it outrage Americans just as much as the Administration’s fumbling of hurricane relief that the OFFICIAL poverty rate in America in 2003 was a lamentable 12.5 percent (an increase over 2002’s 12.1%)? Moreover, the U.S. Census Bureau in its 2004 report noted that 15.3 million Americans were living in “severe poverty,” which means household incomes at below half the official poverty line ($18, 810 for a family of four, for example). This not only represented an increase over the previous year, but it was the highest number recorded since such data first became available in 1975! As if that weren’t bad enough, the number of children living in poverty in George Bush’s “compassionate conservative” America continues to rise, with nearly 1 in 5 children languishing at the bottommost rungs of the economic ladder in 2003.

The most important duty of any government is to insure the safety and security of its citizenry. A government that cannot do so forfeits its claim to legitimacy. The Bush administration dropped the ball on 9/11, but famously promised to improve matters. Katrina has now given the lie to the Bush administration’s pricy anti-terrorism/disaster relief programs. Meanwhile, throughout the Bush administration’s tenure, the social safety net for the very poorest Americans has been allowed to erode steadily and with little notice … until today. If we as Democrats cannot now step up to the plate as vocal and fearless defenders of the poor against Bush-inspired Republican giveaways to the rich, then perhaps we ought to no longer pretend to be the party of FDR and of selfless idealism.

Peace!
Historian