Democrats searching for a way to blame President Bush for Hurricane Katrina are circulating a report that claims the Bush tax cuts and the Iraq war drained funding from New Orleans flood-control projects.
A report Wednesday on Editor & Publisher's web site charged that the Army Corps of Engineers was unable to complete several projects to reinforce the levees around New Orleans because federal funding was cut back.
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"The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain," E & P claimed, as the Big Easy sunk further beneath Katrina's floodwaters.
A top advisor to 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wasted no time seizing on the report.
"The Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war," claimed Mrs. Clinton's former White House media strategist, Sidney Blumenthal.
Writing in Der Speigel, Blumenthal complained:
"A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken."
Before Wednesday was over, other Democrats had begun echoing the same theme.
"As these facts get out, and the American people learn that decisions were made not to fund improvements of the levees because of Iraq, they will not be happy," Washington-based Democratic consultant Chris Kofinis told the Associated Press.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg complained to the AP that the White House should have had troops and supplies on the ground in New Orleans on Monday. "President Bush's wake-up call came awfully late," he groused.
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