While the south cleans up from the catastrophe we call Katrina, I sit here in
a soaked Ohio wondering what the President will do to help. The region is
already high in the poverty level and the early estimates are at $26 billion in
damage. They are saying as many as one million people could be homeless and
jobless now. The federal government needs to spend at least as much money on its
own people as it has on “liberating” a nation.

I say that knowing it will most likely not happen. We will hear how the
budget can’t afford that kind of help nor can the economy handle it. Before Bush
has the chance to say that, I just want to make sure people know what a crock of
crap it is. Bush has given the upper 1% of the economic ladder massive tax
breaks. Last year, a week before being re-elected, Bush signed a massive tax
break for the corporations. General Electric alone saves almost one billion
dollars in taxes.

These companies have as much, if not more of a stake in the rapid recover of
the region. If the country can not afford to assure adequate emergency funds are
available to those displaced individuals, then taxes must be raised. That does
not mean raising them on the poor. Poverty has grown the last four years and is
over 12% now. The rich need to help out more than ever.