Sing the Monty Python Spam Song tune to this one…
Re: the myth about Louisiana not getting enough funds to shore up the levees. Here but one of many gotchas that topple that myth… plus a lil more thought candy to boot. From John Stossel:
“It turns out Louisiana got lots of money for Corps of Engineers projects — hundreds of millions of dollars more than any other state. Congress just spent it on pork projects instead of on the levees.
I confronted Breaux about his own state’s pork, such as subsidies for ship builders and the sugar industry.
‘I object to you using words like squander and pork,’ he said. ‘What is pork in one part of the country is an essential project in another part.’
It’s a reason Americans shouldn’t filter so much money through Washington. Louisianans don’t need Iowa rain forests, and Iowans don’t need levees in Louisiana. Maybe the people who want to live in New Orleans should have to pay (through private enterprise or local taxes) the special costs of its exposed location — or live elsewhere. If all local projects, essential and whimsical, were paid for with local taxes, competition among states and cities would force them to become more efficient.â€
Go, read the whole thing. The levee thing’s just the tip of the iceberg.