Why should New Orleans be rebuilt?

[Rocky Raab]

I'd add this proviso: If you live in NO, you get to decide the issue. If you don't, you don't.

BUT, if you live there and decide to rebuild, the rest of us (who didn't decide) also don't pay for it. If you're on welfare, you work to rebuild, unless you are disabled. Put in less than 40 hours a week, and no more public assistance. There will be no Federal flood insurance (It's already law that you must be six feet above sea level to get it) and you must comply with ALL environmental contamination requirements.

If you decide to re-locate, you will receive assistance until you find work. You'll comply with that state's unemployment and welfare rules.

Hisorical perspective: In the 1930s, drought virtually wiped out the entire middle of the country - they called it the Dust Bowl. Banks foreclosed on farms, businesses and all. There was no Federal assistance. Families packed what they could and moved out, many to California. Before long, states blockaded their borders to keep Dust Bowlers out - unless they had a job pre-arranged. Families picked crops, dug ditches, chopped wood and did whatever they could to feed themselves. They created tent cities outside city limits - called Hoovervilles.

When FDR suggested that the Feds help out with money, the rest of the country almost revolted. They said that free money would hurt the Bowlers sense of self-worth and respectability. They'd quit trying. Ignoring that advice (from the media, no less!) FDR created the welfare state.

And people on it today have no self-respect and zero respectability. They never try to get out of it, either.

All this started with a natural disaster. The Feds (exclusively Democrat back then) ignored the will of the people and created the welfare state.

Today, another natural disaster MAY help topple that welfare state. When the country sees what "cradle to grave" welfare costs - and not just in money but in human values - maybe, just maybe, we'll get back to sane and humane policies.