Republicans using their own incompetence to cut government

The Republicans have wanted to cut government since the Gingrich revolution, but some programs were too popular for them to touch. Now, just as they used 9/11 to propel American into an unnecessary war in Iraq, they are preparing to use the disaster in New Orleans to get more cuts in popular programs.

Of course, much of the disaster they are attempting to use they caused themselves, either by inadequate work by the Corps of Engineers or the failures of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. Katrina was a Republican political disaster much more than a natural disaster.

Michael Grunwald and Susan B. Glasser of the Washington Post write today that the New Orleans levees should not have failed. They were designed to handle a 14 foot storm surge, and the actual surge probably did not exceed 11 feet and certainly did not exceed 13 feet.

John M. Barry -- who criticized the Corps in "Rising Tide," a history of the Mississippi River flood of 1927 -- said that if Katrina did not exceed the design capacity of the New Orleans levees, the federal government may bear ultimate responsibility for this disaster.

"If this is true, then the loss of life and the devastation in much of New Orleans is no more a natural disaster than a surgeon killing a patient by failing to suture an artery would be a natural death," Barry said. "And that surgeon would be culpable."

So, beyond the failures of the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to adequately respond, the really devastating part of the damage was directly caused by inadequate work that was the responsibility of the Corps of Engineers.

The President has proposed throwing money at New Orleans in order to reduce the political damage caused him by the failure of the Federal government. The Republican Congress is willing to go along with this, probably because the opportunities for patronage and graft are fantastic. Neither, however, will consider a tax increase. to pay for this.

Instead, the Conservatives in Congress are proposing a series of cuts in the federal government to save money. From the Carl Hulse at the New York Times we get this partial list of cuts:

At the top of a partial list of the potential cuts being circulated on Tuesday were previously suggested ideas like delaying the start of the new Medicare prescription drug coverage for one year to save $31 billion and eliminating $25 billion in projects from the newly enacted transportation measure.

The list also proposed eliminating the Moon-Mars initiative that NASA announced on Monday, for $44 billion in savings; ending support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $4 billion; cutting taxpayer payments for the national political conventions and the presidential election campaign fund, $600 million; and charging federal employees for parking, $1.54 billion.

Let's see. Bush has already cut the shuttle and the space station in exchange for the fantasy of the Earth to Mars trip. Now we can clearly see the bait-and-switch there. No delay on the tax cuts, but a delay on the Medicate prescription drug plan? A small cut in the pork recently added to the transportation bill but none from Tom DeLay's district. Since that bill was already a political embarrassment to the Republicans they are happy to do it. Besides, it will probably come out of Democrats' districts.

In short, the Republicans are using their own incompetence in governing as an excuse to obtain more conservative reductions in government - as long as the tax cuts, homeland security and the useless war in Iraq aren't touched.