Weekly Address: Lessons And Renewal Out Of The Gulf Coast

I'm glad to hear that FEMA will be operated on a professional basis and that arcane federal turf wars are being brought under control. It's great to hear that eleven cabinet members have visited the Gulf Coast and that the president plans to himself. Still, these hardly address the issues of recovery or the lack of confidence people have in their own government. The president rightly raises the latter as a critical issue, but I wonder whether he makes the connection to that and the health care reform battle.

I'm not blaming President Obama for what happened after the hurricane struck. The grossly, the inhumanly, inadequate federal response lies at the feet of President Bush. Moreover, the political moment for massive federal programs -- such as a Gulf Coast Authority -- to rebuild the Gulf Coast has probably come and gone, victim to Bush's incompetence and a failure of vision by congressional Democrats (who could have pushed hard for this after the 2006 election).

But if there were ever a crisis of confidence in government, it came after Katrina. That crisis colors the health care debate: People who know that the current system is inadequate and who despise insurance companies remain fearful of making as minimal a reform the public option because they think -- they know -- that the government will botch it just like it botched Katrina and Iraq. That we elected a new administration in response to this doesn't go far enough in these people's minds.

It's nice to know that roads and schools are being rebuilt (although they likely needed that before Katrina) and it's reassuring to hear a president talk about the importance of wetlands in a way that connects to everyday concerns. Nontheless, I would be much happier with a stronger statement the spoke to an ongoing commitment by the Administration to work to rebuild the Gulf Coast in a bipartisan fashion. We have a Car Czar, a Drug Czar, and plenty of other czars. Why not a point man or woman who can press Congress for meaningful action and keep the executive branch focused? In any event, government action in the Gulf Coast must be more public, more concentrated, and simply more...

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It is the glory and greatness of our [the Democratic party's] tradition to speak for those who have no voice, to remember those who are forgotten, to respond to the frustrations and fulfill the aspirations of all Americans seeking a better life in a better land.

Senator Ted Kennedy, Address to the Democratic National Convention, August 1980