Eugene David
...The One-Minute Pundit

Monday, September 12, 2005


"There's understandable pressure to get money out quickly," said Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is in charge of the relief effort. "But there inevitably will be waste and fraud."

Isn't that what federal spending's all about?

Last week's votes on a $51.8 billion spending bill seem to bear that out. The Senate vote was 97 to 0; in the House, it was 410 to 11. The action pushed to $62.3 billion the amount allocated so far for Katrina relief, with more to come.

That's more than this year's discretionary budgets for all but two Cabinet departments, Defense and Health and Human Services. And it's more than the total federal spending for homeland defense. Washington has been burning through $2 billion a day in its flood-relief efforts, even before reconstruction begins.

The federal government has a long record of responding quickly to disasters, only to see money diverted for questionable uses that have little or nothing to do with its intended purpose.


More! MORE! I'm still not SATISFIED!!

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