So now the Democrat-controlled Congress is pumping money out of Washington in an effort to stem a catastrophe—and lots of bad press. And it turns out this Congress isn’t any better at it than the Republicans were.
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the city’s levees broke and disaster flooded in. President George W. Bush was initially slow to respond.
But once the public outcry rose to a crescendo, the government began churning out so much money so quickly that the normal processes for ensuring the money was spent properly were ignored.
That led to numerous negative news stories about exorbitant spending and shady operators reaping huge profits, making the Bush administration look not only uncaring, but incompetent.
Well, now money is beginning to pour out of Washington to rescue us from the economic downturn.
Getting the dollars to the public quickly in the hope of stimulating the economy and minimizing the economic downturn will be perilous. Already the stories are beginning to emerge.
The Daily Herald, a newspaper in DuPage County near Chicago, recently ran a story explaining that county officials will be receiving $4 million to fund its program to help low-income families make energy-efficient improvements to their homes.
The county’s finance board chair was quoted as saying: “I’m frustrated about it because we’re getting money for something we don’t need money for, and we’re in desperate need of money for some roadwork projects.”
Expect such stories to multiply … by the hundreds. There will also be multiple stories of direct fraud. Add in after-the-fact revelations like the multimillion dollar AIG bonuses and Congress has its own Katrina Moment.
Yes, Congress is trying to set up safeguards—which will fail. There’s too much money sloshing around and too many opportunities for abuse.
And expect Congress to find lots of reasons why it should not be held accountable for those errors—reasons never acknowledged when President Bush was compelled to open the financial flood gates, albeit with a lot less money.