In California's delta, that approach translates into $20 million this year to improve the levees that protect Sacramento, the state capital, at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers, and to strengthen the Folsom Dam, upstream from the city. But virtually no federal money is earmarked for other nearby levees that protect smaller communities, cropland and the conduits that bring drinking water to Southern California.
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Not Spending as Much California's state government struggles with that issue. The Schwarzenegger administration has proposed more spending on the levees than the Legislature has been willing to approve. Katrina raised awareness of the benefits to be reaped, but even before Katrina, a 1997 flood damaged or destroyed more than 30,000 homes and businesses, and a rupture in a levee last year resulted in $100 million worth of damage and repairs.
This isn't just about levees and infrastructure spending. It's rampant, and it's completely the fault of the current administration and the Republican's taking power of the legislature in 1996. The aim of the Republican party has been to dismantle the "social" side of the Federal government and replace it with capital expenditures that are farmed out to corporations (think Halliburton). The strategy has been to choke off money that's going to states, which is typically social-type programs (Medicaid, DHS, Special Ed, etc), sending that money to Federal programs where it can be outsourced (highway construction, drilling for oil, etc) or create new/bloated bureacracy (Homeland security, FCC, etc). This starvation on the part of the states is what is currently creating the problems we're seeing. With eroding tax revenues and no help from the Feds, most states are on the brink of fiscal disaster. One look at the energy crisis in CA, the unemployment in MI, TennCare in TN, and the entire southeast region in fiscal junk bond status, and you can see that the plan is working. And it's not just levees. Healthcare, education, public works, and economic development have pretty much all been abandoned by the Feds so they can go off and fight unwinable wars and fatten their friend's corporate profits. So when you read about how the Bush administration is incompetent and not intouch with reality, think again. They know exactly what they are doing and are executing with aplumb! This is essentially a scorch the earth strategy, which will transfer wealth from every sector of our society into the most wealth Americans who can afford to invest or be shareholders in major corporations who are reaping the benefits of this strategy. This will leave irrepable damage to our society and our community, as it will takes decades to undue the damage, if at all. Disasters Waiting to Happen |
