Now it begins: America’s biggest relief and recovery program since the New Deal. And the omens aren’t good.
It’s a given that the Bush administration, which tried to turn Iraq into a laboratory for conservative economic policies, will try the same thing on the Gulf Coast. The Heritage Foundation, which has surely been helping Karl Rove develop the administration’s recovery plan, has already published a manifesto on post-Katrina policy. It calls for waivers on environmental rules, the elimination of capital gains taxes and the private ownership of public school buildings in the disaster areas. And if any of the people killed by Katrina, most of them poor, had a net worth of more than $1.5 million, Heritage wants to exempt their heirs from the estate tax.
Still, even conservatives admit that deregulation, tax cuts and privatization won’t be enough. Recovery will require a lot of federal spending. And aside from the effect on the deficit – we’re about to see the spectacle of tax cuts in the face of both a war and a huge reconstruction effort – this raises another question: how can discretionary government spending take place on that scale without creating equally large-scale corruption?
Attempting to lower taxes in a time where federal spending skyrockets by the day is disingenuous at worst, morally bankrupt at worst. Even Ronald Regan, the godfather to all modern Republicans, raised taxes in the face of huge deficits. The once mighty GOP will fracture over the proposed spending. Bush’s presidency will have two disasters as bookends. The first created enourmous goodwill and politcal capital. Then he managed to completely waste it all on the Iraq endevour. By the time Katrina happened, Bush’s legacy was already in doubt, and it began to sink as fast as the waters rose in New Orleans.
WIll Karl Rove be remembered for cementing a Republican majority? That looks less and less likely every day.