President Bush’s multi-billion dollar reconstruction plans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are being used as “a vast laboratory” for conservative social polices, administration critics claim.
The White House strategy involves the suspension of a series of
regulations guaranteeing the going local wage and affirmative action
for minorities, while offering tax incentives for businesses in the
affected region.
Education aid for displaced children will include $500m (£276m) in
vouchers for private schools, while a senior Republican has also
proposed a new law permitting a wide-ranging waiver of environmental
regulations.
Plus it will be a transfer of wealth in the hundreds of billions from
public money to the already super wealthy. Cynically, they will use
these disasters as justification to slash spending on health care,
schools, and infrastructure, while continuing to give tax cuts to the
wealthy.