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TechnoratiBush Still Plays Politics With Disaster Aid
No one seriously debates anymore that President Bush plays politics with declarations of disaster areas.
Just as he neglected New Orleans, a Democratic city, while rushing to help Mississippi, a Republican-led state, after Hurricane Katrina struck, so the president has responded to the recent storms in the Midwest by first declaring federal disasters in Indiana, a state with a Republican governor.
Bush did that last week after severe storms and flooding ravaged states across the upper Midwest.
The president was not cautious about helping Hoosiers. Even before Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, a former Bush administration appointee, could dot every "i" and cross every "t" on requests for assistance, the president was scrambling to declare 29 Indiana counties -- a third of all those in the state that backed Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections -- as eligible for federal aid.
There's nothing wrong with helping Indiana. The state needed and deserved the aid it got so quickly. And it is encouraging to see our lackadaisical commander in chief finally move in a proactive manner on something.
What is not so encouraging is Bush's loping response to the crisis in Wisconsin, a state with a Democratic governor that voted for Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.
Bush declared five Wisconsin counties -- Columbia, Crawford, Vernon, Sauk and Milwaukee -- as disaster areas late Saturday.
That's good news for residents of those storm- and flood-ravaged regions.
But the president neglected to designate a sixth hard-hit county, Richland, as qualified for emergency assistance -- despite a request from Gov. Jim Doyle. And Bush has neglected to send the proper signal to Wisconsinites: an announcement that all counties where the governor has declared a state of emergency will be declared disaster areas so that residents can qualify for grants, low-interest loans and other forms of assistance for people affected by the storms.
There is no question the disaster in Wisconsin extends far beyond the five designated counties.
Gov. Doyle has already declared states of emergency for two dozen counties.
Federal aid will come, eventually.
Despite the fact that Bush plays politics when it comes to emergencies of this kind, the facts on the ground will make it impossible for the president and his aides to deny necessary assistance to Wisconsin counties -- as they did a few years ago when the weather wreaked havoc in south-central Wisconsin.
Still, the president's hyper-politicized approach is unsettling.
The root of public distrust toward Washington is a sense that politicians use the federal government as a personal and partisan plaything. George Bush's actions regularly confirm that sense and feed the distrust.
© 2008 Capital Newspapers
8 Comments so far
Show AllLet's not forget Burma, which will prove to be another Rwanda when the body counts are finally done. Despite the chronically stupefied Laura Bush's rhetoric and the sensible advocacy for forcible intervention by French Foreign Minister Dr. Bernard Kouchner, very little has been done to help and tens of thousands may perish.
Had the US, UK, France and India, with the blessing of the Security Council, put Than Shwe and his thugs on notice that aid would be delivered and interference taken seriously, I'm very sure help could have been provided without incident.
"Compassionate Conservatism" is as much an oxymoron as "Clean Coal" and "USA PATRIOT."
IOWA BLACKBIRD said, " this president and his friends in the oil industry are partially responsible for these 'natural disasters," and I agree. Just as Bugliosi is setting the case for impeachment based on many forms of depraved indifference, some astute team of lawyers SHOULD establish the link between war-for-oil/war-profits and the actual suffering both here and abroad. Imagine the lawsuits that would follow!
I agree with Robert Settgast. We inflicted George W. Bush on ourselves and the world. It's time we start owning our actions.
I know Rovian spinmeisters created the frightened, reactionary voting patterns that prompted millions of middle class voters to vote against their own interests. People stop thinking for themselves and then they get fooled and voted against their own interests.
The people voted these monsters in. Sure, Bush stole his elections but enough (millions) voted for him to make the theft possible. We've all sat by for years and watched Congress refuse to impeach him. We see a woman Speaker of the House for the first time and the first words out of her mouth were, practically, 'preserve the empire'. . . by this I mean that Nancy Pelosi declared impeachment off the table. Even the dems thumb their nose at doing what is right.
We have all colluded in the system we have.
Dont blame Bush. Instead blame the moron voters who heped him steal two elections, our legislators for defaulting their duties by tolerating such abuses, and the five Supreme Court justices who betrayed their oath by placing politics ahead of duty and planting this unsuitable person in office.
" Still, the president's hyper-politicized approach is unsettling.
The root of public distrust toward Washington is a sense that politicians use the federal government as a personal and partisan plaything. George Bush's actions regularly confirm that sense and feed the distrust."
i watched al gore's film 'an inconvenient truth' last night, this president and his friends in the oil industry are partially responsible for these 'natural disasters',the corporate policies that have denied the reality of global warming while wasting resources and lives bushwhacking the planet in search of more oil. (here in cedar rapids where 24,000 of my neighbors have been displaced, where 438 city blocks were underwater and in parkersburg where the F5 tornado destroyed a placid community a few weeks ago, leaving 9 dead in it's wake -first F5 here since the 1970's, as of now 83 of iowa's 99 counties have been declared disaster zones - as the flooding moves downstream to communities along the mississippi).
it appears as though the linkage is scientifically incontrovertible (including the notion global warming is partially responsible for the wildfires in california) as described this morning on Democracy Now.
the president will be here on thursday, i'm glad he was distracted in europe - that his presence will be after the fact, hopefully my fellow iowans will understand more thoroughly how little he cares about their lives (as he's disregarded the lives of so many people during his tenure- say along the gulf coast or in the middle east).
crisis precedes change ... global warming is real, federal disregard for life is real - america desperately needs change...
...peace...
I thought it was sick the way he hightailed it to that first Kansas town destroyed by the tornado nearly fast enough to see the storm moving off in the distance.
Watching him there, I couldn't help thinking of flooded New Orleans with bodies floating face down in the water, while he strummed on his guitar, and made jokes to crowds in Arizona and CA.
The Indiana floods were the worst since 1913. They were also the first of the states to be flooded badly. So, initially they got more attention. Let us hope that "Lake Iowa" now will also get help.
I'm surprised we got the counties we did.