The Effects of Conservativism

From the Finacial Times of London

Bush policies have crippled disaster response

There are at least three reasons why the hurricane may mark a turning point in the US debate over the role of government.

First, the deep tax cuts enacted in 2001 - which President George W.?Bush now wants extended permanently - left no room for government initiatives that might have prevented the catastrophe and increased capacity to respond.

(...) [The article notes all the funding cuts by Bush for required work on the New Orleans levees]

Second, despite huge increases in spending to fight the war in Iraq, the hurricane revealed how thinly the US military has been stretched. [The article notes how the local National Guard was in Iraq ]

(...)

Most striking, however, has been how the storm has ruthlessly exposed the poverty that still afflicts a substantial minority of Americans, and has grown worse since Mr Bush pushed through tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited the well-to-do. The US Census Bureau reported this week that another 1.1m Americans slipped below the poverty line last year. After falling for most of a decade, since 2000 the number of Americans in poverty has grown from 11.3 per cent to 12.7 per cent of the population - a higher percentage than in the 1970s despite 30 years of generally robust economic growth.

With the New Deal in the 1930s, helping those who could not help themselves became a mission that spawned a vast expansion of government's role. After a generation of determined effort the conservative movement has succeeded in squelching that mission. In the aftermath of Katrina, its success appears to have come at high cost.