George Bush rarely takes responsibility for the myriad messes he makes, so why would anything be different when 1,500 homes and hundreds of thousands of acres goes up in smoke. Bush is traveling to the Golden State tomorrow to "survey" the damage, probably even landing the plane this time. But why does he have a part in this? Well it all comes down to his adherence to ideology that it is better to drown the government in a bathtub, or a sea of flames. When you do not have a government that can serve the people, bad things inevitably occur.
From The Huffington Post:
The Government Accountability Office, Congress's nonpartisan auditor, issued stark warnings earlier this year on shortcomings in the administration's plans to fight fires.
In a June report, the GAO report faulted the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, and other agencies for failing to accomplish the "fundamental step" of planning out what assets and resources were needed to prepare for approaching fire seasons. Meanwhile, disaster response problems that have become all too familiar in recent years were also identified: administration officials placing resources where they were politically expedient, and using poorly performing contractors to accomplish critical national tasks.The Orange County Register today appeared to show how these warnings manifested. The paper faulted federal planners for erecting red tape that prevented the use of more DC-10 airplanes to drop flame retardant on areas that were on fire.
"It would be nice to have more such planes available, don't you think?" an editorial in the paper asked. "If the federal government had had its way, even this one almost certainly wouldn't be flying this week....One can understand a certain amount of caution from the Forest Service, but this is bureaucratic overkill."
The pertinent government agencies were staffed by Bush's friends and friends of friends. Naturally people with no experience with what they are charged to oversee do not plan out what needs to be done in an emergency. Therefore, when the brush started burning, no one was able to help local authorities deal with a major calamity. This is the same thing that happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
So while the PR aspect will be handled better this time by the White House Press Secretary, the institutional problems remain. No matter what Bush says on television tomorrow from Southern California, nothing will be changed. And when the next disaster comes along, expect the same dismal results.
|