George Bush Did It.

Some truth about Katrina recovery spending.

My home state of Mississippi has been blasted for the perception of receiving more money than Louisiana for disaster recovery.

Well, it's about f'n time we were first in SOMETHING, but an analysis of the numbers show reveals a different vein.

From The Sun-Herald:

The U.S. Government Accountability Office says federal hurricane-relief spending to date is about $116 billion.

Mississippi has received about $23.5 billion of that total, including money that went to repair federal facilities here.

Though no one in Louisiana appears to have a firm number on how much has been spent there, it would be reasonable to assume the bulk of the remaining $92.5 billion Mississippi wasn't able to "grab" went to Louisiana.

Conservatively assuming Louisiana received only $75 billion of that spending, that would put Louisiana slightly ahead, per capita, of those who lost their homes, at $366,000 in federal spending for each. Mississippi's total federal spending amounts to $361,000 per devastated homeowner.

And credit is due to Haley Barbour for his diligence and perseverance in beginning the recovery.

Mississippi had a plan when it went to Congress, hat in hand, after Katrina.

"We presented a very specific, reasonable request... ," Barbour said. "We didn't ask for everything we ever dreamed of, multiplied by two."

Louisiana, Barbour noted, "said they should get $250 billion, about two months after the storm." Barbour and others at the time said this request from Louisiana, made by Sen. Mary Landrieu, made it hard to get any additional relief funding from Congress at the time. "Everybody in Washington was offended," Barbour said.

Louisiana's initial request after Katrina included spending for improvements at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and other projects of dubious relation to Katrina.

During a recent meeting with the Sun Herald, Barbour went off on what he called the "whining" in Louisiana that Mississippi got too large a share.

"One of the things they used was that the number of schools in Mississippi that were still closed by December in 2005 compared to the number of schools that were closed in Louisiana was just a tiny fraction," Barbour said. "Of course it was, because we had all our schools back open. We worked our tails off. We had all our schools back open before New Orleans had one back open."

And though Mississippi schools were open, children were, and are, attending in temporary trailers used as classrooms because their schools were destroyed.

"So what's the idea? Are they supposed to punish us for getting our schools back open quickly? That's their mentality: 'Somebody do this for me,'

" Barbour said. "Down here, people said, 'We're going to do this for ourselves, and we hope you'll help us,' and that's what happened."

From The Chicago Tribune:

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin point fingers of blame at each other and at federal bureaucracy for the city's sluggish recovery. But the more time passes since Katrina, the less the hurricane can be used as an all-purpose excuse for inept state and local leadership.

Boo hoo.

That's what 200 years of political corruption will get you in Louisiana, a bunch of whiny, weasley, windbag losers.

Maybe William Jefferson can help you. I hear he's got a bit of extra cash laying around the house.