DIY Government

The latest Republican talking point seems to be how wonderful it is that Americans are opening their homes, their hearts, their wallets, and coming to the aid of hurricane victims.

In Lafayette, Laura Bush grinned as she talked about the generous response of average Americans. Good-ole-boy Senator Trent Lott told CNN's Anderson Cooper about the boys from Virginia he'd come upon, who'd just taken it on themselves to load up a truck and come help. Other members of the Lee Greenwood fan club are proud of their fellow Americans who've offered to share their homes to evacuees.

I guess we've got a Do It Yourself government now.

Forget tent cities erected by FEMA, forget rescue operations coordinated by the same government who sends troops around the world. Heck, we'll just pull ourselves up from our soggy bootstrap, with our neighbors' help and a. few trips to the Home Depot.

This is not to make light of the enormous generosity of Americans. We are truly a wonderful country, when we put our minds and hearts to it.

But we also need a government that is more concerned with protecting and helping citizens than in protecting millionaires and oil companies' assets.

As Rob Salkowitz notes,

It’s moments like this when you need a party in power that actually believes in the affirmative power of government to help its citizens, rather than the party that sees government’s role as protecting the property of the well-off from the predations of the underclass.

(Thanks to Shakespeare's Sister for the link)

Next week the Senate will debate the elimination of the estate tax. Those Americans who lost their homes weren't millionaires; they would never qualify for the estate tax, yet they pay sales tax on almost every bit of their income. (Louisiana is one of few states that still taxes food.)

Shouldn't we help them first before we help out the millionaire in our neighborhood?

Comments

[Kathy]

"Next week the Senate will debate the elimination of the estate tax. Those Americans who lost their homes weren't millionaires; they would never qualify for the estate tax, yet they pay sales tax on almost every bit of their income. (Louisiana is one of few states that still taxes food.)"

Alabama does too. Amazing!

I'm really proud, and not particularly surprised, that the people of this great country are responding to the needs on the Gulf Coast. And all these do-it-yourself efforts are great, but from what I'm hearing, FEMA is so disorganized that they keep turning away offers of assistance. So, Laura, Trent, Condi, etc., go on with your photo ops and keep pretending that we believe Bush has everything under control.

[Anne]

Exactly. This sort of donation response shows what they want to do with "faith-based charities." But what happens when the "faith-based charity" doesn't want to help a certain type of person?