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THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE
    #7351279 -

The idea of using federal money to rebuild cities is the quintessential liberal vision. And given the dreadful results in New Orleans, we can say that the government's billions spent so far represents the quintessential failure of that liberal vision, says Lawrence Kudlow, host of CNBC's Kudlow & Company.

Consider:

So far, the federal government has spent $127 billion (including tax relief) on post-Katrina New Orleans.
The entire gross domestic product (GDP) of the state of Louisiana is only $141 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

If the relief money had been divvied up among residents, the $127 billion would come to $425,000 per person.

So the cash spent there nearly matches the entire state's GDP, says Kudlow. And to make matters worse, by all accounts New Orleans isn't even fixed. Further, according to an article by Nicole Gelinas at the Manhattan Institute:

New Orleans has earned the distinct honor of becoming the murder capital of the world.
The murder rate is 40 percent higher than before Katrina and twice as high as other dangerous cities like Detroit, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C.
Right from the start, New Orleans should have been turned into a tax-free enterprise zone, says Kudlow. No income taxes, no corporate taxes, no capital-gains taxes. The only tax would have been a sales tax paid on direct transactions. A tax-free New Orleans would have attracted tens of billions of dollars in business and real-estate investment. This in turn would have helped rebuild the cities, schools and hospitals. Private-sector entrepreneurs would have succeeded where big-government bureaucrats and regulators have so abysmally failed.
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=14955


$425,000 per person!!!!!!!!just a fucking black hole for our tax money....

New Orleans is not even a city anymore..Its just a corrupt garbage dump.


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America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure"

We have "reckless fiscal policies"

America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.

Americans deserve better

Barack Obama

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: lonestar2004]
    #7352195 -

I agree completely until that last part. New Orleans is still one of the greatest cities in America. I visited there recently and my hometown is not far from there. It is an area I know well. NO is about 40% smaller in terms of population but things are improving albeit at a snails pace.

I don't usually agree with Kudlow but he was spot on there. They need business involvement much more than government grants which take years to move through all that red tape. I still think NO has a good chance to recover but the govt. bungling has added years onto that time.


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“The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.”  -- Rudiger Dornbusch

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: lonestar2004]
    #7352330 -

You are right to bash the federal govt for doing a worse job of rebuilding NO than all of the charity organizations that are still down there, for preventing local aid to get into New Orleans due to the incompetence of FEMA, the president and the Governor of New Orleans, and for the fact that Canadian Mounties showed up before FEMA workers did. Katrina has definitely been a shockingly disgusting lesson in incompetence and bad decision making on the Federal level.

The Coast Guard should not be included on that list. They did a fantastic job during and after Katrina and deserve respect and praise.

But this:
lonestar2004 said:
New Orleans is not even a city anymore..Its just a corrupt garbage dump.


No way. It is still in ruins because America has turned its back on its own self, but I completely disagree that NO is not a city. We need to love that place if we are going to keep any part of it alive. And it is worth keeping alive. One of the only places in America that has its own culture.


--------------------
:hst:
Society in every form is a blessing,
but government at its best is but a necessary evil 
- Thomas Paine

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: gluke bastid]
    #7352484 -

"New Orleans is still one of the greatest cities in America."

"We need to love that place if we are going to keep any part of it alive."


I Hear Yall.



Some of the best food Ive ever eaten was in NO. But thats the ONLY thing positive i can say about the city.

I just want/wish no more of my income tax money spent on rebuilding a SINKING city that sits below sea level of the Mississippi river.


Its criminal and deadly.....


--------------------
America's debt problem is a "sign of leadership failure"

We have "reckless fiscal policies"

America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.

Americans deserve better

Barack Obama

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: lonestar2004]
    #7352703 -

Actually, lonestar, more than half of the city lies above sea level. I feel people should be encouraged to build there and if you choose to rebuild elsewhere you are largely on your own.

She ain't what she used to be but the Crescent City is still a fabulous place with a unique vibe and charm and a tremendous amount of history. And yes, the food is incredible and unique. :drooling:

New Orleans is utterly irreplaceable unlike many of the cookie cutter cities you find across the nation.


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“The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.”  -- Rudiger Dornbusch

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: lonestar2004]
    #7352772 -

lonestar2004 said:
"New Orleans is still one of the greatest cities in America."

"We need to love that place if we are going to keep any part of it alive."


I Hear Yall.



Some of the best food Ive ever eaten was in NO. But thats the ONLY thing positive i can say about the city.


pre-katrina? NO was one of the greatest cities in america before katrina.... the food was/is the best, but there is so much more. The culture of NO is unlike any other and had more charisma and character than any other city.

Quote:
I just want/wish no more of my income tax money spent on rebuilding a SINKING city that sits below sea level of the Mississippi river.


and I dont want my income tax dollars to go towards rebuilding cities in Iowa when it floods every single year, or how about california when earthquakes hit, or how about tornadoes in the midwest, white outs in the NE..... no matter where you live, there are going to be natural disasters occur. It really pisses me off when people act like NO is the only city that ever received FEMA money, or the only city that has natural disasters occur.

One thing I will say about NO is that the majority of people there are lazy, sitting by thinking that the world owes them something. This isnt some unfounded opinion, it is personal experience. My mother lives in NO and I spent almost all my life on the gulf coast, as well as most of my family and friends live there.
My hometown, Ocean Springs, MS, lies right next to biloxi, and the entire city is somewhat of a peninsula that juts out into the gulf. That city got wrecked worse than NO and got flooded just the same. If you go down to that area, you would see that they are back up and running just fine.
The gulf coast area kind of got ignored by the media and partially by FEMA, and the people there pulled together and rebuilt their city, they didnt sit around waiting for FEMA to help or felt like they were victims.... see that is the problem, just the other day I watched "when the levee's broke" and it infuriated me, it should have been called "Dumbshits complaining who think they deserve something for being a victim".

The government can only offer money, they cannot give you the motivation and effort it takes to get a city and its culture back to normal... the people have to do that, and that is where NO failed.... NO failed themselves, not the government.

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: zorbman]
    #7352779 -

new orleans is truly unique, and lonestar is just being stubborn with his original, mistaken comment.

the murder rate is insane - I hadn't read that before now.


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No statements made in any post or message by myself should be construed to mean that I am now, or have ever been, participating in or considering participation in any activities in violation of any local, state, or federal laws. All posts are works of fiction.

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: kotik]
    #7352814 -

Yes, the murder rate is very high right now. What has happened is that the gangs (which you find in any big city )which were uprooted after Katrina have returned and are re-establishing their turf, often in new neighborhoods. This breeds conflict and violence until a stasis returns. It will settle out over time.

Also the police force is in shambles and frankly wasn't that great pre-Katrina.


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“The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.”  -- Rudiger Dornbusch

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: zorbman]
    #7352853 -

yeah right. Know where you got sent if you wanted to train in crowd control? NO.
They were the experts of crowd control, and the street cops were very cool, just as long as you gave them respect... one wrong word and you would go down to central lock up, otherwise if you yessir'd, you would be fine.
of course they wouldnt police the 9th ward, even before katrina, the 9th ward was about as dangerous as any insurgent infested city in the middle east. People would just shoot from their dilapitated ghetto building.

as of now, yeah, no amount of great police could do any better with the current situation.

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #7352868 -

Of course crowd control is only one aspect of police work. They were always the best I've ever seen at that as I can personally attest. But corruption has been a continuous problem.

Then again the same thing can be said of most of southern Louisiana. :laugh:

Edwin Edwards where are ya?


--------------------
“The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.”  -- Rudiger Dornbusch

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: zorbman]
    #7352880 -

yeah, I think there is something to the napoleonic code that they operate on that allows for so much corruption, because they have been leading the stats in that category since Huey P Long.
But in all the years I lived in and visited NO, i never once had any problems with getting mugged, or getting arrested.

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: zorbman]
    #7352886 -

They should have given every home owner down there the half million. That would have stimulated the economy by creating a larger demand for goods. It would have improved the rebuilding rate because actual people would be rebuilding there own homes, and if they wouldn't they could just move some where else with that money.

As for being tax free city, thats a poor idea. Isn't Nevada a tax free state? They might have slightly more business there per capita but not that much more. Sales tax is a regressive tax by nature. One we should be eliminating rather than encouraging. More over the cause of the disaster was failed infrastructure. In fact, all over in America we have a failing infrastructure that will require tax dollars to rebuild. Tax dollars that aren't going to be there with a sales tax only state, or the Billion Dollar Boondoggle called the Iraq war.

Edited by Smackshadow (08/30/07 07:24 PM)

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #7352921 -

Quote:
But in all the years I lived in and visited NO, i never once had any problems with getting mugged, or getting arrested.


Same here. I have never failed to have a great time each and every time I visited the city. ( With the possible exception of the infamous head-butting incident which I shant relate) . :grin:

The Big Easy is a magical place.
If you can't have fun in New Orleans something is wrong with you!


--------------------
“The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.”  -- Rudiger Dornbusch

Edited by zorbman (08/30/07 07:36 PM)

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: zorbman]
    #7353028 -

SRLY. When i try to relate how much fun NO is, I tell them about the time me and three friends decided to go to the french quarter on a wednesday, the day before thanksgiving, and we saw two different 40 year old ladies flashing people.

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #7353088 -

sorry, after re-reading that, why would someone think that is fun.... but the point to the story is that it was a wednesday night, the day before thanksgiving... a night where it is dead everywhere else in the united states and yet NO was still leading the pack with debauchery and hedonism.

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #7353130 -

How is New Orleans a liberal failure if the current power structure is conservative republican?

I do agree with you that New Orleans is corrupt lost cause though.


--------------------
Hi  :scrambled:

My god... it's full of stars...

Edited by StrandedVoyager (08/30/07 08:24 PM)

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: lonestar2004]
    #7353274 -

How much of the $127billion is allocated to the US Army Corps of Engineers?

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #7354872 -

The night before Thanksgiving is a notorious bar night everywhere I've lived.

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: StrandedVoyager]
    #7355324 -

StrandedVoyager said:
How is New Orleans a liberal failure if the current power structure is conservative republican?


I think his point was that he is that the federal government is all take and no give, due to ineffeciency, and if the federal government assumed less control of things the country would run better. The idea is more classical conservatism than contemporary neo-conservatism.


--------------------
:hst:
Society in every form is a blessing,
but government at its best is but a necessary evil 
- Thomas Paine

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Re: THE BIG EASY'S BILLION DOLLAR BOONDOGGLE [Re: StrandedVoyager]
    #7356036 -

StrandedVoyager said:
How is New Orleans a liberal failure if the current power structure is conservative republican?



Female democrat governor?
Black democrat mayor?

What the hell are you talking about?


--------------------
I'm a nihilist. Lets be friends.

bang bang

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