The Place of Dead Roads

No sooner has Rev. Lowery spoken these words than we read this. From the AP, No New Katrina Aid in Bush Budget

The Bush administration offered no new aid for Hurricane Katrina victims in the budget it released Monday, instead putting modest amounts of money into preparedness and response plans for future disasters.

A Republican senator from the still-reeling Gulf Coast said he doubted that those funds would be enough to overhaul federal programs that created a sluggish government response to the Aug. 29 storm. A House Democrat criticized the spending blueprint for cutting $15 million in state and local grants to, in part, help communities create evacuation plans.

...more Gulf Coast aid will be provided in an upcoming $18 billion package that the administration announced last week — the last emergency funds planned for the region for at least a year...But Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said he was concerned about the dearth of relief aid in the 2007 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

"This is going to be a marathon, and not a sprint. And any suggestion that that's it for a couple of years would be disastrous to the recovery," Vitter said.

So indeed, "no more for the poor".

From Reuters, Bush proposes record $439.3 billion defense budget:

The Pentagon budget sent to Congress represents a major increase over current defense spending of $410.8 billion as the White House seeks cuts in domestic spending. It does not include tens of billions of dollars in proposed new financing for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

...the defense budget, which is 16 percent of the overall $2.77 trillion federal budget. "I would be very surprised to see Congress taking a big whack at this," said Steve Kosiak of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments think tank.

By "For war billions more", Rev. Lowery really knew what he was saying.