Watership Down

How Republicans spend our tax dollars...

George W. Bush's cut to New Orleans levee funding prevented the levees from being finished, now it will cost us 3 times as much to repair and finish the levees:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a nasty surprise for New Orleans two months before hurricane season opens. The reconstruction of the area's protective levees, damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, was previously estimated at $3.5 billion. Now it will cost $9.5 billion if insurance-certified levees are built to protect the entire New Orleans region.

Where was the maverick when these cuts we're being made?  Oh yeah, cheer-leading George W. Bush's preemptive war with Iraq, which is where the money for the levees went:

Washington knew exactly what needed to be done to protect the citizens of New Orleans from disasters like Katrina. Yet federal funding for Louisiana flood control projects was diverted to pay for the war in Iraq.

Which caused 80% of New Orleans to flood because:

Most of the city's levees designed and built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers were broken in one place or another, including the 17th Street Canal levee, the Industrial Canal levee, and the London Avenue Canal floodwall. These breaches were responsible for most of the flooding, according to a June 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Leaving the elderly and poor of Louisiana to fend for themselves while John McCain celebrated his birthday with George W. Bush.

He partied while New Orleans drowned

Thinks Progress:

“Yet on the issue of New Orleans, it’s still unclear how different McCain and Bush actually are,” Newsweek writes, noting that McCain has visited the Ninth Ward only twice since the storm. “The senator won’t present his own plans for recovery, at least not today.”

Making kings was more important to George W. Bush than responding to Governor Blanco's request for federal assistance in evacuating Louisiana.  Being made king by the man who cut New Orlean's levee funding was more important to John McCain.