Let the Good Times Roll, But Not at Taxpayer Expense

Hurricane Katrina: one year later, still not my problem

By: Eric Shive on September 26th, 2006 at 3:01 PM

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It has now been one year since Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on New Orleans. Correction: It has now been one year and $122.5 billion since Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on New Orleans. And what exactly do we have to show for it? What have we gotten for our money?

According to one of the most astute political analysts of our time, Kanye West, the government’s poor response to Katrina occurred because “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” 50 Cent popped a rhetorical cap in Kanye’s ass with his reply, “I think people responded to it the best way they can. What Kanye West was saying, I don’t know where that came from,” adding, “The New Orleans disaster was meant to happen. It was an act of God.”

Mr. Cent may be right in his assessment of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The bungled rescue effort, terrible mismanagement by FEMA, and general ineptitude of local, state, and federal officials may indeed be the best that the government can do. There’s a reason why Ronald Reagan said the most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Aside from the loss of life and physical destruction along the Gulf Coast, the greatest tragedy of Katrina was that so many thousands were relying on the government to take care of them during this crisis. This should have been a scathing indictment of the welfare state that left thousands of people abandoned because of their dependency on the government. Instead, it led to calls for countless billions to be flushed down the black hole of bureaucracy.

One of the fundamental flaws in discussions about Katrina is the assumption that somehow the government is anywhere near competent enough to manage the cleanup of New Orleans. George Will suggests whoever is appointed to lead the reconstruction effort “exchange notes with our ‘nation-builders’ in Iraq, now learning conservatism’s core truths about the limits of government’s abilities to know and control things.”

Instead of dumping hundreds of billions of greenbacks into the steaming pot of corruption that is New Orleans, economist Larry Kudlow argues, “A much better approach would have been to employ the capitalist laws of the market economy and simply make New Orleans a tax-free zone…Capital to finance human ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and the love of New Orleans that many have, would be a much more efficient, timely and simpler solution than the gargantuan, bureaucratic spending plan which was doomed to failure from the very start.”

Yes, there is a way to rebuild New Orleans without digging through the wallet of the American taxpayer to redistribute his wealth. Someone whose home is destroyed by a hurricane has no intrinsic right to another person’s money. If you live in an area where the threat of natural disasters exists, get insurance. If you can’t afford the insurance, move. It’s not anyone else’s obligation to provide you with money to rebuild after a disaster.

Few pundits on the Right will even hint at this argument. There used to be a time when personal responsibility reigned in America. Take, for example, the actions of President Grover Cleveland. After Congress passed the Texas Seed Bill of 1887, which would give $10,000 to farmers in Texas suffering from a drought, Cleveland summarily vetoed the measure. His justification: “A prevalent tendency to disregard the (government’s) limited mission . . . should be steadfastly resisted to (enforce the lesson) that, though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people.” Amazingly, Texas survived without the influx of federal money.

But today we live in the age of George W. Bush, where the W stands for “when somebody hurts, government’s got to move.” Bill Clinton felt our pain; Dubya is going to cure it.

Here’s a fine idea for the fiscal fiends in the federal branch: Instead of robbing Peter to pay Paul, how about helping the millions of taxpayers who are hurt every time the government steals obscene amounts of money from their paychecks? Can the government please move to end that nightmare?

The unfortunate truth is that the era of limited government is over. The few fiscal hawks that are left are among the most endangered species in America. When “conservatism” is defined by disposing more than a hundred billion dollars into a pork-laden so-called disaster relief bill, it is utterly petrifying to imagine how much cash would have been doled out with liberals in power. This is not to say that it is wrong for Americans to willingly donate money to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It would be a shame if New Orleans is never able to reclaim its former glory. As the old Cajun saying goes: “Laissez les bons temps rouler”—but not at taxpayer expense.

 

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