Rebuilding the Gulf Coast

With Gun-Toting Liberal out of the country, he's taken the grave risk of asking me to help keep his blog running. I won't always post the same things on LJiC as I post over at GTL, but this one was too good not put on both:

Enough Introductions. Time to get this Shindig rolling, don't you think? And what better topic than the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, assuming the latest hurricane, Rita, doesn't wipe out what's left.President Bush outlined a huge rebuilding effort, sounding on the surface more like LBJ than Reagan, with promises of billions upon billions of dollars, giving money away as fast as it can be printed. My conservative soul cringed as I heard the speech last week, with echoes of the war on poverty, and untold generations made dependent on the government once again.It was only later, when I got in to the details of The Plan that I began to take heart, and my conservative soul was pulled off the ledge. Here's a couple of conservative nuggets that slipped right passed 'ole Chris Matthews on PMSNBC:
Meeting the Needs of Schools and Students. In recognition of the communities across the nation that have welcomed displaced students in need, the President is proposing to provide funding to school districts enrolling significant numbers of displaced children. This funding would be used to reimburse school districts for the unexpected costs associated with educating additional children for the 2005-06 school year, such as teacher salaries, transportation, materials and equipment, special services for children with disabilities, supplemental educational services, and counseling. To ensure that displaced families have maximum flexibility to meet the education needs of their children, the President's proposal would provide compensation to displaced families for enrollment in private, including parochial, schools.Did you catch the part I put in bold? That's VOUCHERS, baby!!!! The very thing that makes the NEA vomit, and the very thing that will save our education system. But we aren't done:
The GO Zone Will Provide Tax Relief And Loans For Businesses And Entrepreneurs To Invest In The Region And Create Jobs. The GO Zone will double small business expensing from $100,000 to $200,000 for investments in new equipment, provide a 50 percent bonus depreciation for all businesses, and extend tax relief to the building of new structures. The GO Zone will also make available loans and loan guarantees for small businesses, including minority-owned enterprises, to get them up and running again. It is this entrepreneurship that will create jobs and opportunity and help break the cycle of poverty.Now, I don't think the left included that little ditty in their mantra. But Conservatives have been pushing the idea for decades. And now we get a chance to see if it works. That's the point. Federal statutes demand we spend the money on this disaster. But, for the first time, Conservatives have the chance, and the power, to decide how the money is spent, and BY WHOM. We've thrown money at poverty for 40 years now,and the result has been generations of poor, mostly black, inner city citizens chained to monthly government handouts. The President's plan has the potential to change that. If it succeeds, and there is good reason to believe it will, The Plan will be a model for the scenes of disaster around the country commonly known as The Inner City. The Left will work hard to stop The Plan, but at the grave political risk of looking uncaring, and without compassion. And they won't just look that way. The appearance of being uncaring and without compassion will be fact. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. Yep, my conservative soul has not only stepped off the ledge, it's cheering...Loudly.cross posted at The Gun-Toting Liberal