http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=9554In an exclusive interview with HUMAN EVENTS Editor Terence Jeffrey this week, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R.) outlined the combined state-and-federal effort to rebuild the vast area in his state damaged by Hurricane Katrina, saying his government would not use the disaster “as a way to gouge the taxpayers.”
Barbour said he hoped the federal government would pay 90% of the tab for repairing public infrastructure in Mississippi, but estimated the total federal costs for relief, recovery and rebuilding in his state would be under $50 billion and might not be much more than $30 billion. The $250 billion aid package being recommended for nearby Louisiana by that state’s U.S. senators, Barbour said, “seems to me very excessive.”
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Do you believe that the national media was unfair in targeting the Bush Administration for its performance in the aftermath of the hurricane?
BARBOUR: Again, I only know what has gone on in Mississippi. We have had about a half a million households, over 40% of the families in our state, who have applied for disaster assistance. Seventy percent of our population, and more than half the area of the state, are in counties that have been declared major disaster areas. So, we are not talking about a calamity on the coast. We are talking about 29,000 square miles and 47 of our 82 counties. That’s by the way, 29,000 out of 47,000 square miles. If you take 1.9 million people, which is how many people live in these counties, and if you get 98% of things right, there are 4,000 people a day who have something to complain about.
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