Hurricane an Excuse for Payouts

In the midst of all this talk about aiding the poor hurt by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, let's not forget another group that deserves our pity...big industry. In this Washington Post article accurately titled "Lobbies Line up for Relief Riches", we see how the pet lobbying projects of various industry and corporate interests are being revived, in the hopes of getting a chunk of the billions Bush and Congress plan on throwing around for hurricane relief. Certainly our industry-friendly Republican controlled Congress isn't going to send any of these poor and deserving supplicants away:

"Lawmakers are receptive to many of these requests, congressional aides said. For example, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Tex.) is moving legislation this week, much of it recommended by lobbyists, that would waive regulations to help oil companies build new refineries. The reason: the hurricanes drew attention to the nation's dependence on a small row of Gulf coast refineries.

The oil lo bbyists, like so many others, are using the storms as an excuse to win long-sought legislation, even when their plans relate only tangentially to the hurricanes."

Now that figures like $250 billion in hurricane relief are being thrown around, these big companies figure they better get while the gettin' is good. Some examples from the article include:

• The American Institute of Architects (seriously.)
• The American Petroleum Institute
• Delta and Northwest Airlines: cost of fuel has gone up, and we can't really expect them to pay for that can we?
• Insurers seeking an extension to the Terrorist Reinsurance Act
• The American Farm Bureau...representing farmers outside of LA.
• The Federation for American Hospitals, representing privately owned hospitals

Among others of course. Now of course it's quite reasonable to expect the government to aid some businesses that were disproportionately affected by the hurricane, and cannot be expected to rebuild on their own, just as the federal government will aid private citizens in the same conditions. But insurers who want an extension to the kinds of terrorist acts the damage for which the government will pay for? Farmers in the mid-west who claim to be affected by the hurricane's impact on the economy? I haven't really done a survey, but are we eating any less??

I would like to say that our responsible members of Congress will of course turn down the most unreasonable of these requests, because Katrina should be no excuse for handouts to favored industries. But I would also have to be hopelessly naive to think such a thing. Of course it's an excuse to hand money to industries, just as 9/11 was an excuse to hand money to airlines and security companies, the blackout in New York was an excuse to hand out money to the energy industry, and the war in Iraq has been excuse to hand out money to Haliburton. I would like to think that most of the aid will go to those who lost loved ones and property in New Orleans and LA, but that would be hopelessly naive as well. The best we can hope for is that continued public pressure on Congress will force them to turn away the most egregious of the requests, and at least try to keep some focus on those who were actually injured by the hurricane.