WHERE’S THE PRESIDENT?
When George W. finally got to New Orleans last September after Hurricane Katrina hit, he stood in Jackson Square to address the nation, declaring: “We will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.”
Where’d that guy go?
Five months later, Bush has forgotten New Orleans … and he hopes we will, too. In his State of the Union speech, this unique American city was relegated to a four-sentence throwaway line at the very end. Now we have Bush’s budget, and his pledge to “do what it takes” turns out to be only the money already allocated – which doesn’t begin to touch the massive task of reconstruction.
Even that money is being frittered away by Bush’s hopelessly inept crew at FEMA. While thousands of New Orleans residents remain homeless, FEMA has failed to deliver even the temporary trailer homes that were promised months ago. These homes have been bought, but they’re on parking lots gathering dust, entangled in FEMA bureaucracy. Where’s the president? Why doesn’t he step in and lead?
A new report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office asks these same questions about the Bushites’ bungled performance just before and after Katrina struck the Crescent City. The GAO investigation found that the failure began at the top, with Bush ignoring the early warnings, doing nothing to ensure that the city and state had adequate plans to save lives, and failing to put a top-ranking White House official in charge.
Even Republicans are appalled. Rep. Tom Davis, usually a Bush ally, says the White House knew “this was the big one,” yet, when the crunch came, “Bush is in Texas. [Chief of Staff Andrew] Card is in Maine. The vice-president is fly-fishing. I mean, who’s in charge here?”
George still fails to take charge. With this guy in the White House, you better pray that no disaster hits your city.
EXXPOSE EXXON
Shhhhh. Exxon Mobil doesn’t want any attention paid to its latest profit report. How big was the corporation’s profit last year? Shhhhhh. Let’s whisper it together: $36 billion.
For one year! Holy Robber Baron! That’s an embarrassment of riches – a jaw-dropping 40% leap over the previous year. No wonder Exxon Mobil doesn’t want us rabble to notice – since that $36 billion was picked right out of our pockets by the company’s gas pumps.
This rip-off is so politically explosive that Exxon Mobil even tried a pre-emptive PR campaign before releasing the profit number in hopes of dampening criticism. It organized slide shows for journalists and took out full-page ads to proclaim that, golly, its profit margins are actually lower than those of drug companies and banks. Come on, the drug kings and big bankers are notorious thieves! Is this comparison supposed to make us feel better?
The bottom line is that Exxon Mobil just hauled off the biggest profit in the history of corporate America, at a time that prices at the corporation’s pumps continue to rise and when working families are already stretched to the breaking point.
Luckily, George W.’s on the job! Lucky for Exxon Mobil, that is. In his energy bill, passed last November, he included another $2 billion in tax breaks for oil giants that are wallowing in windfall profits. He also killed a provision that would’ve required a reduction in U.S. oil consumption by a million barrels a day by 2015. And when a senate tax bill added a one-year tax increase of $5 billion on the largest oil corporations – Bush rushed to the defense of Exxon Mobil, promising to veto the bill.
Fifteen of America’s largest environmental groups have organized a campaign to rein in Exxon’s excess. To join the effort, go to www.exxposeexxon.com.
This article appears in February 24 • 2006.