Well, for a brief, glimmering moment there seemed to be some hope about a federally coordinated plan that was receiving bipartisan support in order to reconstruct New Orleans.
From the January 5 NY Times:
Representative Richard H. Baker, a Republican from suburban Baton Rouge who derides Democrats for not being sufficiently free-market, is the unlikely champion of a housing recovery plan that would make the federal government the biggest landowner in New Orleans - for a while, at least...Desperate for a big-scale fix to the region's huge real estate problem, Louisiana officials and business leaders of all stripes - black and white, Republican and Democrat - have embraced this little-known congressman and his grandiose plan, calling its passage crucial.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Well, today we learn about the administration's reaction to this major initiative. Want to guess what their response was?
In today's NY Times we read:
The White House this week also formally notified Representative Richard H. Baker, Republican of Louisiana, that it would not support his legislation creating a federally financed reconstruction program for the state that would bail out homeowners and mortgage lenders. Many Louisiana officials consider the bill crucial to recovery, but administration officials said the state would have to use community development money appropriated by Congress.
Ha ha! Joke's on you New Orleans. I guess if the administration can't hold tightly onto the reconstruction purse strings, then the city isn't worth rebuilding, right?
You can read the whole article here, which includes more evidence of administration skullduggery: http://www.nytimes.com/...