If the U.S. government had simply started providing each of the 458,393 (5/05) residents of New Orleans with
$150,000 each in monthly payments of $6,250.00 for 2 years...

• ($68,758,950,000) to help them get back on track while figuring out whether or not or when to try to move back to the city; spent
• $2 billion dollars for local clean up and refuse companies to clean upthe mess, and
• $2 billion to local utilities for getting power and water and cable and wireless up and running, each with a three-month deadline, and
• $2 billion on dredging major canals and rebuilding levees and seawalls
  to quality category 5 protection, and issuing rebuilding maps that mention WHEN not if it will be safe to rebuild in different areas, and how long it will be to get flood insurance (depending on levees being fixed) on land, and provided
• $2 billion for a sustainable renewable R&D center to be jointly run by the consortium of New Orleans universities and to help induce new energy business interests, and
• $2 billion in communications and other resource assistance to local government offices trying to coordinate response to various federal government lapse-related programs, including coordinating the rebuilding calendar for folks who want to come back home to be able to do.

And all this would still not add up to the $85 billion in taxpayer funds this completely untrustworthy administration is misrepresenting having helped New Orleans with, when actually it was $67 billion that was given away in bunches to no-bid Administration cronies with no accountability and millions in documented waste, and, now, an addendum of $18 billion to go to developers with no incentive but to plunder communities for their own profits after FEMA flood maps negate Corps of Engineers' negligence by calling all the most easily developed tracts flood prone and uninsurable. (Of course, after the lakefront and ninth ward properties are all bought up for nickels on the dollar and flipped, FEMA will likely determine that they can be protected and insured after all.)

The $79 billion proposed here, could come directly out of the over billions the U.S. OWES Louisiana for energy shares. If the federal government owned up to its duty and simply guaranteed restitution with monies above as described above the injured parties might not sue. But they surely could. And every American with a TV has been able to witness with disgust and shame the abysmal abandonment of fellow citizens. And what they will learn from heavily documented evidence and eye witness accounts is that the criminal negligence and malfeasance of both the Office of Homeland Security and the Corps of Engineers helped cause the deaths of over 1,000 people and all property loss due to flooding, mold and decay. Trouble is how high the punitive damages could go on a misguided government that fails to protect its citizens so miserably, and then tries to help its donor cronies continue to profit bscenely wastefully off their victims'losses. The sky should be the he limit for those at the top. Every cent made for campaigning for, of being in, or profiting by being in public office should go toward a punitive award.