MSSunHerald:Time is slipping away (for Katrina relief package)

(Just one phone call or e-mail to each of your "Congress Critters," as merh says, could make ALL the difference this week!)
Posted on Sun, Dec. 11, 2005

Time is slipping away

Hopes for federal aid face do-or-die week

By GEOFF PENDER

capitalbureau@aol.com

JACKSON - Thousands of homeowners and South Mississippi's overall Katrina recovery face a do-or-die situation in Congress this week, in part because of partisan politics surrounding indicted Republican leader U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay.

Passage of a $35 billion Katrina federal relief package, Gov. Haley Barbour and other state and local leaders lament, is overdue and crucial to Mississippi's recovery. They point particularly to a requested multi-billion dollar bailout of 35,000 homeowners who didn't have flood insurance. But the spending faces stiff opposition, primarily in the House, and lack of support from the White House.

If the relief is not passed this week, before Congress breaks for Christmas, it could be put on hold indefinitely. Talk on Capitol Hill last week was House Republican leaders would delay returning to Washington until at least Jan. 31, an effort to give DeLay a chance to clear himself in court next month of a money laundering indictment so he could be reinstated as House majority leader in the new year.

Barbour and Coast officials, testifying before the House last week, warned that many South Mississippians are on the bubble financially and emotionally. The grace periods on their mortgages for their destroyed homes have ended. They have no insurance payout coming because the federal government told them they didn't need flood coverage. Their jobs are gone and many face bankruptcy. They may give up on rebuilding and start a mass exodus soon, Barbour warned, sucking the wind out of rebuilding efforts.

<http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/13381082.htm>
(more at link above)

:kick:

That Barbour said earlier he had no complaints about, right?

They have already forgotten about the Gulf Coast, written it off. They have more important things to worry about -- like giving new tax cuts to the filthy rich and cutting Medicaid and child support enforcement.

of course there isn't much good in a situation like this but that is gratifying.

...against WH like Trent Lott is starting to do, but I think the more important thing is, these folks need help, and time is running out.

:kick:

Ltte trifecta
Got this letter printed in the Clarion Ledger, Sun Herald and Hattiesburg American this past week:
Our Governor appeared before a House panel on Wed. Dec. 7 and admonished Congress for the lack of Federal help in getting our state back into shape after Katrina.``We are at a point where our recovery and renewal efforts are stalled because of inaction in Washington, D.C., and the delay has created uncertainty that is having very negative effects on our recovery and rebuilding,'' Haley stated.
Gene Taylor backed him up with this statement,``I applaud you for scolding the House leadership. I didn't vote to elect Dennis Hastert, governor - you helped get him there. I'd hope you'd use that influence to get him off his duff.''
And what was Hastert's reply to this?
He decided to shut down the House's return from it's winter break until Jan. 31, 2206.
The reasoning behind this move to keep the House closed for an extra 2 weeks? It does not look like Tom Delay will get his money laundering trial finished until the end of January. If the House was to reconvene at their normal time they would be required to vote on a new House Majority Leader.
As Mississippians on the coast huddle in tents and burn what is left of their homes to keep warm over the Holiday Retail Season, we should have comfort in the knowledge that our needs will be on the back burner while the House figures out what to do about it's leadership( or lack of it).
We have a Republican Governor,and in D.C. we have a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican President. And a state that voted Republican is getting shafted over Republican politics.
Some will say Mississippi has reaped that which it has sown.
No citizen of the United States deserves this. No matter their political affiliation.

Republicans in Washington, if all we do is say, "well, they got what they voted for," that would just be wrong and counterproductive.

Not sure if you are in the area that's still struggling, but I'd like to invite you to check out the New group that I recently helped set up, the Hurricane Survivors Group. Here's the Mission statement and the link:

The DU Hurricane Survivors Group is a place for DU members from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South-west Texas, and Southern Florida and elsewhere who are or have been victims of the recent Hurricanes to check-in, meet each other, trade accounts, offer advice or just show support for their fellow survivors. It is also a place for posting Hurricane related news stories, which seem to have been bumped from the front pages, if they are still being reported at all.<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=360>

I hope to see you there.