It is fairly comical to see the uproar among some conservatives reacting to the President's New Orleans speech.  Have they been asleep for five years?

From day one of his Administration George W. Bush has been nothing if not consistent in his free—spending ways. Each year federal outlays grow and each year deficits rise. Crises come and crises go and the response is always the same. In time of peace, spend; pay for medicine, education, lunches, promise Africa billions, millions for the needs of the Third World.  In time of danger and woe, spend, erect bureaucracies, support 'democracies,' offer non—recoverable 'loans,',rebuild infrastructure, bribe friendly nations, and always, always, always take responsibility.

The spending is not the result of a pre—determined policy of profligacy but rather the result of both an ongoing overreaching federal power grab and complete ignorance or misunderstanding by the public and their elected representatives of how a Republic should operate.

No wonder Katrina is thought by many to be Bush's fault. Bush himself has made it clear that he and the Feds govern the world.

There has been no deceit in any of this. How many times has Bush made it clear that he sees his role and the role of government in general, to 'fix problems.'?

Congressional dismay with any new proposed federal spending is a joke.

Republicans like Tom Delay and Bill Frist have no credibility in finding fault with the President at this point. The pork spending would be scandalous and disgraceful if democrats proposed it, no less under the watchful eyes of our Republican leadership. Republican Congressmen actually smirk as they brush away the calls for restraint from the few who demur, and in some cases, most notoriously Senator Stevens of Alaska, brag about fleecing the taxpayers to help themselves and their constituents.

So why the outcry now?

Perhaps it is simply that Bush has gone, 'a bridge too far.'

To the speech:

'We will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives...'

Rebuild lives?

 'The Department of Homeland Security is registering evacuees who are now in shelters, churches, and private homes....'

Is this their job? Who is securing our borders?

'I have asked for, and Congress has provided, more than 60 billion dollars.'

We have borrowed, rather.

'...demonstrates the compassion and resolve of our nation.'

No, sir, the billions of private donations demonstrate that.

'In the rebuilding process, the Federal government will be fully engaged in the mission.'

This is good?

And now to the really bad stuff.

'...poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America ...we have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action.... There should be many new businesses, including minority—owned businesses, along those streets. 

What?!?  Comment would be superfluous.

And finally,

'We are the heirs of men and women who lived through those terrible winters at Jamestown and Plymouth, who rebuilt Chicago after a great fire, and San Francisco after a great earthquake.... every time the people of this land have come back ...to build anew, and to build better than what we had before.' 

Yes, and without Federal assistance.     

The sheer size of the Katrina disaster, the result of impersonal natural forces, and the obvious impotence of government, any government, to cope with and carry out the demands of a people expecting to being fully taken care of, exposes the folly of on—going government dependence. To respond as Bush has done, promising to pour billions in federal funds into what has been revealed as a sinkhole of corruption and incompetence has hopefully awakened the dormant frugal impulse and common sense of a sleeping nation.

Bush is an honorable man, a consistent man. This is how he thinks, and what he does. There should be no surprise.

Andrew Sumereau   9 19 05