A poem for New Orleans

The president said,

'I'll fix levees like new,'

But talk is cheap,

And your lives are, too.

From The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune:

WASHINGTON — President Bush is expected to shift $1.3 billion away from raising and armoring levees, installing flood gates and building permanent pumping in Southeast Louisiana to plug long-anticipated funding shortfalls in other hurricane-protection projects, a move Sen. David Vitter describes as a retreat from the president’s commitment to protect the whole New Orleans area

Vitter, R-La., who unveiled Bush’s plans Thursday, condemned the move in a strongly worded letter to the president and called on him to ask Congress for more money to complete work that he promised would be done - and Congress financed - in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

“I believe your fiscal 2008 budget proposal would be a step back from that commitment, however unintended,“ Vitter wrote. “I am deathly afraid that this vital emergency post-Katrina work is now being treated like typical (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) projects that take decades to complete. We will not recover if this happens

John Paul Woodley Jr., assistant secretary of the Army for Public Works, said that the money will go toward critically needed hurricane protection on the West Bank that has left residents vulnerable. Without it, he said, work would have to stop in a matter of months when financing dries up

“We will come to a point later in spring when we will have to stop issuing contracts unless the additional funding is made available by some other means,“ Woodley said. “There is no question, as the senator says, of our commitment. It should not be seen as a step back from that commitment.“

It has been anticipated for months that there would not be enough money to finish long-planned hurricane-protection work on the West Bank, including raising levees to
withstand a 100-year storm and building flood walls on the east side of the Harvey Canal. Bush’s budget appears to be an attempt to finally complete those projects without asking Congress for additional hurricane-protection money.

Instead, his fiscal 2008 budget is expected to “reallocate“ $1.3 billion from what Congress appropriated last year to fix the failings of the region’s hurricane-protection system exposed by Hurricane Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in American history.

Had enough, New Orleans?

Had enough, Louisiana?

Had enough, Mississippi Gulf Coast?

Had enough, America?