From First Draft:

Bush Needs to Stop Playing Politics with the Gulf Coast Recovery and Waive the 10% Requirement

The New Orleans City Business recently accused the Bush administration of playing politics with this and it is hard to conclude otherwise given the facts. Here they are:

*Under the law Bush is allowed to waive the matching requirement when the per capita cost of a recovery bill exceeds $65.

*In Louisiana the per capita recovery cost is at $6,700 so far.

*The matching requirement was waived when the recovery cost of Hurricane Andrew reached $139 per capita.

*It was waived for New York when 9/11 cost per capita reached $390.

*The matching requirement has been eliminated 32 times since 1985 for other disaster recoveries.

*Louisiana has already paid back $400 million as required under the Stafford Act, more than any other state has ever had to do for disaster recovery. The state still faces paying an estimated $1 billion more.

One more reason to love your president.