Too Big for His Breaches
Posted March 10th, 2006 by Chip Bok
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I think Bush is taking a bigger hit than he deserves over Katrina.
An AP video showed Incurious George being warned that the levees could overflow. The Chicago Tribune says, "That yielded a gotcha! moment for Bush bashers. They trotted out his later remark–"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees"–to argue that, indeed, he'd been warned." The Tribune goes on to say, "But not so fast. Late last week, the AP, which obtained the video and described the Aug. 28 briefing, issued a clarification. It said a federal disaster official had warned Bush of an overrunning of the levees, not a breach. The difference is not mere semantics. A breach, as the AP noted, is a hole. It's not the same as water overrunning the levees. "
Maybe he was surprised by the breach. Anyway, his response to the criticism was pedestrian. He took another walk on the Gulf Coast. His 10th since Katrina hit, according to U.S. News.com. And for good measure he asked congress for $4.2 billion to rebuild and relocate New Orleans.
I hope he's curious about breaches caused by the great federal spending flood. According to Bloomberg.com, it's up 33% since Bush took office. Twice as much as under Clinton. He's asked for a line item veto as a finger in the dike. So far Bush is behind 133-0 at backing up his regular veto threats. On March 20 he'll move into second place behind Jefferson as the president going the longest without using a veto. Son of a Breach.
March 10th, 2006 at 11:22 am
This from 1998:
The line-item veto is unconstitutional, the Supreme Court decided Thursday, ruling that Congress did not have the authority to hand that power to the president.
Line Item Veto
The 6-3 ruling said that the Constitution gives a president only two choices: either sign legislation or send it back to Congress. The 1996 line-item veto law allowed the president to pencil out specific spending items approved by the Congress.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/06/25/scotus.lineitem/
Maybe with Scalito and Roberts on the bench he will get a different result. But the whole idea of Bush controlling spending is a joke. See this story:
Bush Borrowed More Than All Previous Presidents Combined, Group Says
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200511/NAT20051104b.html
We are in for an economic nightmare in this country.
March 10th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
There's no such word as "uncurious". The word is incurious.
A breach, along with being a hole can be a tear or a rupture, but I have a tough time imagining Bush asking the experts, " Well does
the levee have hole, a tear , or a rupture, or is it overflowing….
because depending on which one it is, I'll have a different plan
to solve the problem." How about the part where Bush is told it's
a Category 5 hurricane. Do you all want to sit around and parse out the meaning of Category 5 and "We're fully prepared".
Chip, there's a breach in your reasoning.
March 13th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Is reality such that the federal government can not rush in without official request for help? Why should the president be on call to save everyone's butt when they don't respond to the approaching hurricane?