Pete the Banker: On Levees, Hurriances and Shovel Ready Jobs

LA Governor Bobby Jindal

Pardon me for asking a stupid question, but one of headlines this week is that the Army Corp of Engineers was rushing to shore up the gaps in the levees around New Orleans. Now as I recall the avowed purpose of the Administration’s Stimulus Program passed in 2009 was to support shovel ready infrastructure projects. And what could be more shovel ready and have had more widespread voter support than fortifying the levies around New Orleans?

Allegedly money has been spent on New Orleans environmental and levee restoration (~$14 billion scheduled; allegedly 70% complete); but obviously not enough given the headlines and apparently some levees restored are literally sinking into the muck.  

Why didn’t this Administration spend more stimulus dollars, more quickly on the New Orleans levees rather than things like turtle tunnels in Florida?? For that matter given the BP oil spill disaster, why wasn’t this Administration more supportive of the Louisiana Governor’s efforts to build barrier islands and barriers off the Louisiana shoreline to stop the oil spill and to help shelter Louisiana shoreline wetlands?