Bush vows to Veto ANYTHING that waives 10% match requirement now impeding Gulf Coast Recovery

When I was down in New Orleans I gave a tour to a group of college kids who worked with the First Draft Krewe gutting a home. They were a public policy class from Elon University. So I was explaining to them how Bush refuses to waive the 10% match requirement and how this is a tremendous obstacle to the recovery of the Gulf Coast. (background here) So I swear, hand to God, when one student asked why Bush just won’t waive the requirement, I said “because he’s a dick.” It just slipped out and I felt a bit bad but it was immensely true. Evidence this…

The New Orleans City Business has an article on Louisiana’s effort to pressure Bush for the waiver. Though such a waiver is in the Iraq Supplemental bill which Bush will veto, we learn from the article that…

Bush also vows to veto any new funding or legislative attempt to waive the 10 percent match.

Here’s the White House justification…

The White House maintains $1 billion was provided
for the 10 percent match in the $10.4 billion in community development
block grants already awarded to Louisiana.

In other words Bush is saying give us back a billion of the aid we gave you and you’re good to go. Nice trick. But here is a major problem even with that…

Bush ignores a major problem with using CDBG funds for the 10 percent match, said Landrieu spokesman Adam Sharp.

“It ignores the greater paperwork issue,” Sharp said. “Right
now, each of the more than 20,000 public assistance projects require
two different sets of paperwork — one for (the Department of Housing
and Urban Development) to confirm that you are allowed to use CDBG
funds to pay the 10 percent, and one for FEMA to confirm that disaster
funds can be used for the other 90 percent. The paperwork can take
months, if not years, to complete, per project. The red tape alone is
enough to strangle recovery.”

Louisiana’s congressional delegation, Democrats AND Republicans alike, say they will continue to push for the waiver. Landrieu thinks the votes are there to over ride Bush’s vetoes …

“I feel confident because the Democratic Congress
is going to make sure that that happens even if the White House will
not,” she said. “He can veto it. If that ever happens, I think we’ll
have the votes to override him.”

So perhaps there is some hope of overcoming Bush’s dicktitude. Yeah I stand by my tour guide statement.