Well. BushCo’s Katrina-response time is improving.
Ah, you ask. Did he rush to exempt the Gulf Coast evacuees from the provisions of the looming Bankrupty Bill? Or take some other action designed to help relieve their financial worries?
Nope. Bush has rushed to suspend the prevailing wage requirements of the Davis Bacon Act for NOLA reconstruction contracts.
(crossposted with revisions from a comment in a fine diary by seesdifferent at DKos)
Davis Bacon requires the government to pay the “prevailing wage” for federal service contracts in a given area, thus ensuring that bidders do not import cheap labor and keeping the focus on a prospective contractor’s ability to perform efficiently and with qualilty.
BushCo will spin this decision as follows: to save money. To drive down the cost of reconstruction.
And since any such federal contracts will be cost-plus, it would actually result in reduced profits for Halliburton or whoever (other things being equal) since the cost of labor under the contracts would be less.
Their real motives, of course, are twofold: to indulge their beloved hobbies of union-busting and screwing the working class.
The proper frame for response is “fairness to the already-devastated residents of NOLA”, who already earn less than the national average.
What I would love to see is for locals to gather the requisite expertise to form a consortium to bid on these contracts – and keep the profits in the area.
Fat chance. Halliburton and other predators upon human misery will swarm over these contracts like maggots on a drowned corpse.
Incidentally, FEMA dumbfuck-in-chief Brown’s college buddy, former Bush campaign honcho and FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, is a lobbyist for Halliburton.
You should visit the excellent Hallilburton Watch site, btw, just to check out the sickening charts on the home page – worth a diary by itself. Do the heartbreaking math: Halliburton is guaranteed a minimum of 2% profit, with a ceiling of somewhere in the 8%-10% range depending on evaluations of their performance. If I didn’t slip any decimal points, and assuming about 4% profit on revenue of about $11 billion, then (thru March) I calculate their profit on about 1600 dead soldiers at roughly a quarter million $ each.
Talk about blood money. Fucking vultures. They ought to be tithing a hefty percentage back to the families.
…be shoddier than what it replaces because few of the thousands of skilled workers they’ll be needing to come from other states to do the job are going to be willing to do so. Thus, less skilled labor will take those jobs.
Lovely.
read before I went to sleep last night.
This is SO wrong on SO many levels. Any word on what the unions have to say about this?
The one thing I have learned over the past 5 years is that the Bush Administration can always stoop lower.
This is outrageous.
I’m pretty sure he is not interested in cutting wages for the mercenar.. er.. “contractors” in Iraq.
If he were a real leader he’d be proposing a WPA type effort for the people who were displaced.
I’m gonna explode!
And does anyone here really believe “Go fuck yourself Mr. Cheney” was down there yesterday to console these poor people and evaluate the damages for any other purpose but his own self interest? I don’t know about you but all I could see in those dark black empty eyes of his were $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!
In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused “a national emergency” that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Bush’s action came as the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid, and drew rebukes from two of organized labor’s biggest friends in Congress, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats.
“I regret the president’s decision,” said Kennedy.
“One of the things the American people are very concerned about is shabby work and that certainly is true about the families whose houses are going to be rebuilt and buildings that are going to be restored,” Kennedy said.
When I saw this my mouth dropped in disbelief. I found it right after reading about how Laura Bush is calling criticism of her husband ‘disgusting’. No, Laura… THIS is disgusting.
These quotes are from an article from CNN Money
What the Fuck? Is this they’re new concept of trickle down? Money trickles down so far and stops at the businesses and corporations and the workers get slave wages for working in toxic waters and handling dead bodies?
Every time I think all the outrage has raged itself out of me, that shitbag we call the president tops himself and thinks he’s doing a wonderful job. Then we have to hear how proud his Mommy is and his Daddy’s mad at those naysayers and how his little Wifey stands behind him. Ptah!! The hallmark of incompetence is George Bush.
CNN covered this on their morning show, both reporters all but saying how disgraceful this is and that they would follow the story. I never thought I would hear myself say a major news media is doing a decent job…
Soledad, the reporter on the show, stood down Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu of La. She did an excellent job and deserves kudos. Mitch Landreiu is fronting for the governor right now and trying to stem the tide of negative publicity for this state. The issue concerned forced evacuations: Landrieu said the governor is “considering” them. Soledad pointed out that in a number of cases they are already happening. “Contradictions” was a word she used.
Landrieu accused the news media of “upping the temperature” on this issue. Soledad said it was the residents who are upset over the forced evacuations.
Soledad brought up the St. Rita nursing home in St. Bernard Parish where several residents died because the owners refused to evacuate.
“That’s not fair,” Landrieu said, “You’re using bits and pieces of information.”
“In all fairness sir,” Soledad said, “We received numerous calls from relatives of the those residing in the home, confirming the decision not to evacuate.”
The St. Rita issue also implicates local and state officials who didn’t insure that people were evacuated and provided the means to evacuate.
I’d love to get in Gov. Blanco’s face and demand to know why help wasn’t sent to the superdome and convention center, at least, food and water.
Was it as painful for her to watch our citizens die because help wasn’t arriving as it was for me? She had the means to help. Louisiana needs to get rid of the Blancos and Landrieus.