The Left's Bush Obsession, Yet Again

Reports say that Michael Moore has written yet another diatribe aimed at the President blaming him for the consequences of Hurricane Katrina. This is simply another indication that the left loves to bash the President regardless of the facts, most of which are not yet known.

There are also many reports on leftist sites claiming that the President is responsible for failing to provide enough funds for New Orleans levee construction, and that a section that broke during last week's flooding had only recently been built but had not yet been sufficiently reinforced.

Let's see what the Corps says about these issues:

''We could spend $20 million if the funds were provided,'' the fact sheet said. Two major pump stations needed to be protected against hurricane storm surges, the fact sheet said, but the budgets for 2005 and 2006 ``will prevent the corps from addressing these pressing needs.''

Acknowledging delays in construction, Corps officials in Louisiana said that those projects weren't where the failures occurred. ''They did not contribute to the flooding of the city,'' said Al Naomi, a senior project manager.

''The design was not adequate to protect against a storm of this nature,'' he said. ``We were not authorized to provide protection to Category 4 or 5 design.''

Source:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/front/12539792.htm

(Emphasis added.)

Thus, it was the design of the levees, and not underfunding, that is at issue.

Further, it is said that substandard reinforcement or outright non-reinforcement of levees was the cause of flooding. Some sources quote Sidney Blumenthal for similar comments. But the above statement from a Corps official disproves those allegations, and further, if substandard reinforcement was indeed utilized, how can this be the fault of the President rather than of those who authorized the use of substandard construction?

A counterargument may be posed that there should have been authorization of a design that was sufficient to withstand a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. There are three problems with this position. One is that it is anything but clear that such a design was possible. Another is that there is no evidence that I've found that such a design was proposed but denied by the President (or by Congress, for that matter). And a third is that the funds necessary to redesign the entire levee system to withstand such hurricanes would seem to be far more than the difference between what was requested and what was ultimately approved.

Once again, the facts that are available prove the left to be as wrong as they are politically obsessed.