President Katrina

November 14, 2005
R. D. Kushner

Things are amiss in the United States, and Katrina is most certainly at fault. The United States Commerce Department reported last week that the U. S. Trade deficit had ballooned to an all time high of $66 billion; $5.6 billion higher than last February’s record breaking deficit. At this rate, experts are projecting that next year’s hurricane season will be blamed for economic stagnation, Nick and Jessica’s breakup, and Karl Rove’s indictment.

Politicians, pundits, and media outlets around the country expressed horror at the enormity of the trade deficit, and according to news reports the blame is set squarely on the broad shoulders of Katrina. She’s really done it this time. Everyone knows that there wasn’t anything wrong with the American economy before she showed up. Everything was just fine before August 29, 2005. The tax cuts were working very well, inspiring the rich to invest in the future of America. As a result, the neediest citizens in this great country were very well cared for under the broad wings of the benevolent free market. Then, just as things were going along perfectly, a little rain and wind caused all kinds of poor people to wash up on the Louisiana coastline in New Orleans. Hell of a storm; hell of a storm.

Katrina has also caused other problems in the United States; and some of these problems are particularly acute and persistent. She shut down a few oil refineries in the gulf region, giving oil companies all-time record profits for this quarter. As a result, oil executives were required to appear before Congress so that Senators could appear to be doing something during an election year. Although it seems likely, to anyone with half a brain, that oil companies artificially inflated gas prices, it seems that the government would rather blame Katrina for America’s dependence on foreign oil and OPEC’s high crude prices.

The comatose American press has indicated that the necessity for budget cuts must also be a result of Katrina’s aftermath. The cleanup has been more difficult and costly than clearing brush on a Texas ranch; and with so many staged photo-ops of George W. Bush with his sleeves rolled up in the Mississippi delta region, one might think he actually did something to help [other than appoint an inexperienced and under-qualified friend to head FEMA]. House Republican leaders are seeking $50 billion in budget cuts while at the same time the Senate has already approved an $82 billion emergency war-spending bill to wage a military operation in Iraq that has no explicit goal other than “victory at any cost.” In a football game such a deliriously vague proclamation is easily understood: score more points than the other team. But in the arena of war, “victory,” if it comes at all, often comes in shades of gray; and so without elaboration, such an amorphous goal is nothing more than saying, “The war will be over when I say it’s over.” No football team in the nation would be insane enough to follow a coach onto the playing field if that coach proclaimed: “Now go out there and keep fighting until I tell you to stop! And after a while, when I feel like it, I’ll declare a winner.”

One should distrust a man with an irreverence for history, when this same man accuses others of trying to rewrite it. President Bush’s response to the Katrina disaster was, “I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” Of course in order to say this he would either have to rewrite history, or ignore it altogether. History clearly indicates that Mr. Bush cut government funding for improving the levee system in New Orleans. History also clearly indicates that the Army Corps of Engineers knew the levies in new Orleans could never handle a category 5 storm. Mr. Bush is trying hard to be a moving target, but his feeble attacks against “liberals” and “Democrats” are starting to sound like the death throes of a convicted criminal.