- Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal
ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials
off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could
have made all the difference, but were never mobilized.
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- Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports
that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of
hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water
a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday-Without Patients.
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- Experts say that the first 72 hours after a natural disaster
are the crucial window during which prompt action can save many lives.
Yet action after Katrina was anything but prompt. Newsweek reports that
a "strange paralysis" set in among Bush administration officials,
who debated lines of authority while thousands died.
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- What caused that paralysis? President Bush certainly
failed his test. After 9/11, all the country really needed from him was
a speech. This time it needed action - and he didn't deliver.
-
- But the federal government's lethal ineptitude wasn't
just a consequence of Mr. Bush's personal inadequacy; it was a consequence
of ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve
the public good. For 25 years the right has been denigrating the public
sector, telling us that government is always the problem, not the solution.
Why should we be surprised that when we needed a government solution, it
wasn't forthcoming?
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- Does anyone remember the fight over federalizing airport
security? Even after 9/11, the administration and conservative members
of Congress tried to keep airport security in the hands of private companies.
They were more worried about adding federal employees than about closing
a deadly hole in national security.
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- Of course, the attempt to keep airport security private
wasn't just about philosophy; it was also an attempt to protect private
interests. But that's not really a contradiction. Ideological cynicism
about government easily morphs into a readiness to treat government spending
as a way to reward your friends. After all, if you don't believe government
can do any good, why not?
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- Which brings us to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In my last column, I asked whether the Bush administration had destroyed
FEMA's effectiveness. Now we know the answer.
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- Several recent news analyses on FEMA's sorry state have
attributed the agency's decline to its inclusion in the Department of Homeland
Security, whose prime concern is terrorism, not natural disasters. But
that supposed change in focus misses a crucial part of the story.
-
- For one thing, the undermining of FEMA began as soon
as President Bush took office. Instead of choosing a professional with
expertise in responses to disaster to head the agency, Mr. Bush appointed
Joseph Allbaugh, a close political confidant. Mr. Allbaugh quickly began
trying to scale back some of FEMA's preparedness programs.
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- You might have expected the administration to reconsider
its hostility to emergency preparedness after 9/11 - after all, emergency
management is as important in the aftermath of a terrorist attack as it
is following a natural disaster. As many people have noticed, the failed
response to Katrina shows that we are less ready to cope with a terrorist
attack today than we were four years ago.
-
- But the downgrading of FEMA continued, with the appointment
of Michael Brown as Mr. Allbaugh's successor.
-
- Mr. Brown had no obvious qualifications, other than having
been Mr. Allbaugh's college roommate. But Mr. Brown was made deputy director
of FEMA; The Boston Herald reports that he was forced out of his previous
job, overseeing horse shows. And when Mr. Allbaugh left, Mr. Brown became
the agency's director. The raw cronyism of that appointment showed the
contempt the administration felt for the agency; one can only imagine the
effects on staff morale.
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- That contempt, as I've said, reflects a general hostility
to the role of government as a force for good. And Americans living along
the Gulf Coast have now reaped the consequences of that hostility.
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- The administration has always tried to treat 9/11 purely
as a lesson about good versus evil. But disasters must be coped with, even
if they aren't caused by evildoers. Now we have another deadly lesson in
why we need an effective government, and why dedicated public servants
deserve our respect. Will we listen?
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