Submitted by admin on Sat, 2005-10-22 08:00. ::
For the past few weeks, the nation has been mustering in support of the people that have been affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The impact on Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama has been horrendous. People of all ages, sex and race have been affected. They have lost their homes property, clothing, jewelry, but of significant importance, they lost the lives of their loved ones.
Among the 972 confirmed deaths in Louisiana and the 221 in Mississippi there were mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles and grandparents. There is no dollar value that can be placed on the emotional tragedy Katrina and Rita left behind.
On Sept. 15 President Bush proposed what many have called the largest bailout for a region in national history as the federal government is taking steps to help repair the extensive damage inflicted on the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina. He vowed to rebuild the tattered Gulf Coast "whatever it costs." He ruled out tax hikes, which means the new spending must add to the federal budget deficit, now $331 billion, and the national debt, now $4.6 trillion.
Former President Bill Clinton, along with former President George H. W. Bush, have traveled to Louisiana and met with hurricane survivors at a Baton Rouge shelter, to get a briefing from officials on the relief effort and tour New Orleans' largely destroyed Ninth Ward. The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund has raised more than $100 million to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina. That amount is negligible in any event, when compared to the actual financial need for the area.
Congressional Republicans are in a tiff over the White House's open-wallet approach to rebuilding the Gulf Coast, an indication that the lockstep GOP discipline President Bush has enjoyed for most of his presidency is disintegrating on Capitol Hill.
I think, however, we are about to undergo another national catastrophe - that of the collapse of the national budget. With the billions being dedicated to the Gulf Coast, in conjunction with commitment for the Iraq war, there doesn't appear to be much left over for the normal operation of the country's needs.
The estimated cost of the occupation of Iraq and the Global War On Terror (GWOT) operations would require about $64 billion in budget authority in 2005. Assuming the occupation force in Iraq would increase to 190,000 service members for year 2005-2006, and then reduce so all U.S. forces would be out of Iraq by 2009. Thus, the only troops overseas to support the GWOT would be those stationed in and around Afghanistan. The estimate to support this situation would be about $64 billion for 2005. The budget authority would decline to about $10 billion a year from 2009 through 2014. But the estimated total would be about $266 billion over the 2005-2014 period.
What all of this boils down to is, as a nation, we are broke. The problem the White House and Capital Hill has, is how are we going to fight our way out of debt and still maintain the function of the government? Someone in our grand and glorious leadership has suggested that we borrow enough money from China to cleanup the mess on the Gulf Coast. That idea doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me considering we owe $1.9 billion to various nations around the world, that includes the $191 billion owed to China.
And what makes it so bad is that we have communities in other locations of the country (which includes Pahrump) without adequate schools, medical facilities, housing, or decent employment. It's these communities in the long run that will be obligated to pay for the foolish borrowing our government is doing. Our children and grandchildren will be left a legacy of enormous debt that they won't be able to pay off because of potentially low employment resulting from quality jobs being sent overseas.
Let's not forget that natural catastrophes can happen anytime, anywhere. Earthquakes in California; hurricanes along the East Coast and in the Gulf and fires caused by lightning strikes can happen anywhere. Excess rain and snow can cause flooding anywhere along the Mississippi River basin. Planet Earth is not immune to the forces of nature.
It's something to think about isn't it? The thing that makes it so bad is that as a citizen of this country there's almost nothing I can do but write about it.
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