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Jewish World Review Sept. 20, 2005 / 16 Elul, 5765 Throwing cash, kindness in Katrina's wake By Clarence Page
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In his national address on Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, President Bush took an artful shot at the always-touchy topic of race. He managed to talk about it without really talking about it.
By my computer-assisted count, he did mention "minority" twice in his text, each time as part of "minority-owned."
And he mentioned "racial discrimination" once, but only as a historical artifact, not a current fact.
And he mentioned "poverty" four times in a context that joined it to racial discrimination and minority ownership, which inadvertently, I am sure, made poverty sound as though it were a problem only for blacks.
"As all of us saw on television, there's also some deep, persistent poverty in this region, as well," he said. "That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality. When the streets are rebuilt, there should be many new businesses, including minority--owned businesses, along those streets. When the houses are rebuilt, more families should own, not rent, those houses. When the regional economy revives, local people should be prepared for the jobs being created…."
"… Tonight I propose the creation of a Gulf Opportunity Zone, encompassing the region of the disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama. Within this zone, we should provide immediate incentives for job-creating investment, tax relief for small businesses, incentives to companies that create jobs, and loans and loan guarantees for small businesses, including minority-owned enterprises, to get them up and running again. It is entrepreneurship that creates jobs and opportunity; it is entrepreneurship that helps break the cycle of poverty ; and we will take the side of entrepreneurs as they lead the economic revival of the Gulf region."
But, I actually liked the speech, if for no other reason than its attempt to grapple with race and poverty, two subjects that get too little attention until a catastrophe like Katrina comes along.
Bush could have avoided talking about race and poverty were his approval ratings not being dragged down to record lows, partly by a widespread perception that he doesn't care enough about the poor black people who Katrina left stranded in New Orleans. Although the mayor and governor deserve part of the blame, too, even Bush's own voters were questioning his slow response to this major catastrophe.
So he responded by doing what conservatives usually ridicule in liberals: He opened up the government's wallet to a wish list of projects that may total more than $200 billion, the most expensive government relief and reconstruction operation in U.S. history.
Maybe the Beatles were wrong. Maybe money can buy you love. President Bush seems to hope so.
But will his ideas to help poor people rebuild their lives really work? Some show more promise than others.
In fact, the President does not have to try to imitate his idea of how liberals behave in order to come up with good ideas to help poor Americans to improve their lives.
Some of the market-friendly conservative ideas on his current agenda show a lot of promise in helping poor folks to rebuild their lives, whether in New Orleans or someplace else.
For example, nothing helps you build a better life more effectively than a good education does. Where there is available space in good schools, public or private, the government should give parents of New Orleans' 77,000 displaced public school students full tuition vouchers so they can find a better education for their children.
And, instead of jumping into a massive project to buy hundreds of thousands of new mobile homes for the displaced, offer federally-subsidized housing vouchers to help the displaced occupy whatever conventional housing is available.
Bill Clinton's administration faced a similar challenge after the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Southern California. It responded with emergency rental vouchers based on the existing Section 8 rent subsidy program. More than 10,000 of an estimated 20,000 displaced renters used the vouchers.
Section 8 receives bipartisan support partly because it helps low-income families make their own choices of neighborhoods and schools, instead of being directed into what might be new concentrations of poverty. President Bush's new proposals to offer financial help or tax-free savings accounts for job training, education and child care could similarly expand the choices available to those displaced by Katrina.
The great lasting tragedy of the victims of Hurricane Katrina is how many of them remain homeless, weeks after the big storm, clinging to slim hopes and desperate for help. Government at all levels failed to help them when Katrina struck. If government helps them to take charge of their own lives, they will be better prepared to take charge of their future.
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Comment on Clarence Page's column by clicking here. © 2005, TMS |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
