DNC- Bush Administration's Katrina Response:Cut Programs for the Poor

For Immediate Release
October 5, 2005
Contact: Amaya Smith - 202-863-8148

Bush Administration's Katrina Response: Cut Programs for the Poor

Washington, DC- Using Hurricane Katrina reconstruction efforts as an
excuse, the Bush Administration is proposing to cut some of the programs
that thousands of hurricane survivors are relying on to recover and
rebuild.

Bush's Office of Management and Budget Director who has been tasked
with cutting spending, has proposed that the federal government cut as
much as $35 billion from non-military spending including food stamps,
Medicare, and Medicaid. These actions only aggravate a situation
worsened by the Bush Administration's decision to roll back laws that
guarantee fair wages for workers and encourage the hiring of women and
minority owned businesses. Meanwhile, many minority owned firms in the
Gulf Coast area have been left out of the contracting process of the
re-building effort while Bush's cronies have scooped up no-bid
contracts.

"At a time when Americans have a renewed commitment to fighting poverty
and social ills in America, the Bush Administration at every turn is
cutting the legs out from under those that have the hardest fight in
recovering from the hurricane," said DNC Communications Director Karen
Finney. "The Bush Administration should join Democrats in working to not
only rebuild from the physical destruction of our communities but to
also rebuild the lives of the neediest victims of the storm."

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee,
www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any
candidate or candidate's committee.

Soulless and nasty, even for them.

Miserable by Design (Bush screws Katrina refugees so as to cut social services net)
by Paul Krugman
The New York Times
October 3, 2005


<snip>
This dilemma explains the administration's opposition to Medicaid coverage for all Katrina refugees. How can it provide that coverage without undermining its ongoing efforts to reduce the Medicaid rolls? More broadly, if it accepts the principle that all hurricane victims are entitled to medical care, people might start asking why the same isn't true of all American citizens - a line of thought that points toward a system of universal health insurance, which is anathema to conservatives.

As for the administration's odd insistence on providing public housing instead of relying on the market, The Los Angeles Times reports that Department of Housing and Urban Development officials initially announced plans to issue rent vouchers, then backed off after meeting with White House aides. As the article notes, the administration has "repeatedly sought to cut or limit" the existing housing voucher program.

This suggests that what administration officials fear isn't that housing vouchers would fail, but that they would succeed - and that this success would undermine the administration's ongoing efforts to cut back housing aid.

So here's the key to understanding post-Katrina policy: Mr. Bush can't avoid helping Katrina's victims, but he doesn't want to legitimize institutions that help the needy, like the housing voucher program. As a result, his administration refuses to use those institutions, even when they are the best way to provide victims with aid. More generally, the administration is trying to treat Katrina's victims as harshly as the political realities allow, so as not to create a precedent for other aid efforts.<snip>
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