At his Sunday news conference, President-elect Barack Obama expounded on his plan for massive federal spending for infrastructure which is proposed to "go beyond roads and bridges" to other programs with "long term payoffs" for taxpayers. This includes school construction, broadband Internet build out and other building projects that will hopefully put more work on my desk and create the 3 million new jobs Obama is hoping for.Even though this will significantly benefit us in the building construction field and all tax payers in the United States in general, I couldn't help but notice that nothing was said about a plan for protecting the Gulf Coast region from a possible category five hurricane and subsequent floods and I don't seem to be the only one who noticed this. Harry Shearer of the Huffington Post outlined in his Dec 7Th article, Obama's Infrastructure Plan, that the Army Corps of Engineers have continued to drag their feet on how to rectify its deplorable handiwork of 2005 when New Orleans was hit by Katrina.
Up till now, Washington's excuse for not committing the funds to help the Gulf Coast was that the said funds would be "hijacked" by the regions "dirty politicians." But what is the excuse now as New Orleans continues to remain vulnerable. Shearer does state that sources close to Obama informed him that the president-elect does not want to bring up this issue now so as not to "rile up anti-New Orleans sentiment." Are you kidding?
I am very Confident in Obama but I feel that this is a key issue that should have been addressed in his infrastructure program. Another Hurricane disaster is something he definitely does not need to happen on his watch as he focuses on the out economy and the quagmire in the Middle East and something residents definitely do not need to experience again.
Image obtained from www.washingtonwire.com
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