Saying that there is "no way to imagine America without New Orleans," President Bush laid out his plan Thursday night for rebuilding the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast, calling it "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen." Standing in Jackson Square in front of the brightly-lit St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, a longstanding symbol of the city, Bush again took responsibility for the government's flawed response to the disaster and vowed that "this great city will rise again."
"Four years after the frightening experience of September 11, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency," said the president, seeking to tie the natural disaster to the terror attacks of 2001 — for which he was praised for taking swift action in the days immediately following the attacks. "When the federal government fails to meet such an obligation, I, as president, am responsible for the problem and for the solution."
As well as ordering every cabinet secretary to participate in a comprehensive review of the government's response to Katrina (see "Bush Takes Blame For Slow Katrina Response; Nursing-Home Owners Charged"), to better prepare the nation for any challenge "of nature, or act of evil men" that threatens its people, Bush laid out an ambitious, government-funded plan that quickly drew comparisons to the Marshall Plan, a massive U.S. government-funded effort to rebuild Europe after World War II.
"Tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives," Bush said.
In addition to laying out his recovery strategy, the speech — the president's first official address to the nation on the three-week old disaster — was also an attempt to blunt some of the criticism that the White House was out of touch with the severity of the devastation.
"Tonight, so many victims of the hurricane and flood are far from home and friends and familiar things," Bush said. "You need to know that our whole nation cares about you, and in the journey ahead you are not alone. To all who carry a burden, I extend the deepest sympathy of our country."
The president, who was uncharacteristically dressed in a blue dress shirt and slacks with no tie or jacket for the 24-minute address — to perhaps emphasize his connection to the people — outlined three main parts of his plan, which experts predict could cost the government more than $200 billion. Congress has already approved more than $60 billion in funding for the clean up and relief effort, funding that is expected to run out in less than a month.
The first part of the president's plan was a worker-recovery account that will provide up to $5,000 for job training, education and child care during victims' search for employment. He also called for new legislation that would provide those victims with education, small-business loans and health care.
The second part included the creation of a "Gulf Opportunity Zone" in the affected states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that would provide tax breaks for businesses to encourage them to stay in the region and lure new ones to the area.
The third and perhaps most ambitious piece is an Urban Homesteading Act, in which a lottery system would be used to distribute federal lands for free to low-income citizens. Those citizens would then agree to build homes on the land either with mortgages or with help from charitable organizations such as Habitat for Humanity.
The president called for the federal government to work with Louisiana and Mississippi to rebuild in a "well-planned" way. "In the long run, the New Orleans area has a particular challenge, because much of the city lies below sea level," Bush said. "The people who call it home need to have reassurance that their lives will be safer in the years to come. Protecting a city that sits lower than the water around it is not easy, but it can — and has — been done. City and parish officials in New Orleans and state officials in Louisiana will have a large part in the engineering decisions to come. And the Army Corps of Engineers will work at their side to make the flood protection system stronger than it has ever been."
Federal money will cover the majority of costs of repairing infrastructure in the affected zones, including roads, bridges, water supplies and schools.
In another attempt to combat lingering criticism that the slow government response to the disaster may have been tied to the fact that many of the victims were poor and black (see "Kanye West Stands By Critique Of President Bush At $2 Bill Show"), the president alluded to the social inequalities in the Gulf Coast area. "As all of us saw on television, there is also some deep, persistent poverty in this region as well," he said. "And that poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality."
Bush also commented on the troubling aftermath of the hurricane that played out on television news in the days following Katrina. "We have also witnessed the kind of desperation no citizen of this great and generous nation should ever have to know — fellow Americans calling out for food and water, vulnerable people left at the mercy of criminals who had no mercy and the bodies of the dead lying uncovered and untended in the street."
Though the speech contained little information on where the money would come from for all these proposals in the face of an already staggering federal budget deficit and the burden of the continuing war in Iraq, it also called for a 100 percent reimbursement for states to cover the health-care costs of treating evacuees through the end of 2005 and $1.9 billion in reimbursement to states for the education of displaced students — with some money going to religious institutions (see "Several Colleges Offering To Take In Students Displaced By Katrina"). The president also requested a six-month amnesty on student loans for those in the affected area, which would cost approximately $100 million, according to congressional officials quoted in a report by The Associated Press.
The president — making his fourth trip to the region in the wake of the storm — also ordered an immediate review of emergency plans for all major cities and said that in the future there was a larger role for the federal government and the armed forces in dealing with major emergencies. He called for a government assessment of the response to the disaster and said he'd work with both parties in Congress on an investigation (see "Federal Agency Delayed Katrina Response, According To Internal Memo"), but the speech ignored Democratic calls for a 9/11-type independent commission (see "Congress Passes $51.8 Billion Aid Package; Democrats Call For Independent Inquiry").
And, despite the urging of some White House officials, according to The New York Times, the president does not currently plan to name a recovery czar to act as point person in the rebuilding effort.
Seeking to move beyond the days of "sorrow and rage" that followed in Katrina's wake, the president alluded to New Orleans' musical history for a symbol of how the region would be reborn.
"In this place, there's a custom for the funerals of jazz musicians," the president said. "The funeral procession parades slowly through the streets, followed by a band playing a mournful dirge as it moves to the cemetery. Once the casket has been laid in place, the band breaks into a joyful 'second line' — symbolizing the triumph of the spirit over death. Tonight the Gulf Coast is still coming through the dirge — yet we will live to see the second line."
To find out what you can do to help provide relief to victims of Katrina, head to think MTV's hurricane relief page.
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