The President's NO/Gulf State Revitalization Plan

My Way News has the story of the President's speech last night.

Reminiscent of LBJ and FDR, the President takes on anti-poverty and offers a more free enterprise-ish battery of solutions. This may result in long-term revival for traditionally impoverished NO residents. Or it may be a recipe for unbearable deficits and ripe corruption of an unprecedented scale.

The basics:

The president said the federal government will pay most of the costs of rebuilding the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans.

"There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again," Bush said.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., speaking after the president's address, acknowledged that the recovery programs would add to the nation's debt. GOP leaders are open to suggestions from lawmakers to cut government spending elsewhere, but the task is urgent, he said.

"For every dollar we spend on this means a dollar that's going to take a little bit longer to balance the budget," Hastert said.

Congress already has approved $62 billion for the disaster, but that is expected to run out next month.

Even before Bush spoke, some fiscal conservatives expressed alarm at the prospect of such massive federal outlays without cutting other spending.

"It is inexcusable for the White House and Congress to not even make the effort to find at least some offsets to this new spending," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "No one in America believes the federal government is operating at peak efficiency and can't tighten its belt."

There's mixed reaction from the conservative side of the Blogosphere. Hugh Hewitt finds the President's speech as a cause for celebration:

Perfect pitch returned tonight, and the president's looks backward and forward were on target. As Chris Matthews observed, it sounded a little LBJ/FDR-like in its vows about the underclass of the recovery region, but that is exactly why it worked so well: That is what needs to happen, and he identified the best approaches in the empowerment of entrepeneurs and the retraining of the evacuees. The enterprise zone could prove a turbo charged motor to the effort, and the promise of innovation was well delivered.

Captain's Quarters and Michelle Malkin were more circumspect in their praise. Said Captain Ed:

In fact, I view his speech in exactly the same way. Bush did a marvelous job of touching on the despair, the heroism, the personal stories that touch hearts and motivate us to greater efforts, as well as the policy decisions that will spring from Katrina's aftermath. Unfortunately, this speech came about a week late. He may well undo the political damage done by the massive confusion of the first few days in the weeks and months ahead if he can quickly start rebuilding and returning people to their neighborhoods, but Bush missed an opportunity to not only demonstrate leadership but to instill a sense of confidence by getting out in front of the cameras like this last week or by the weekend at the latest.

Michelle Malkin notes other conservative bloggers that aren't jumping on the bandwagon:

Ace of Spades:

"I won't be liveblogging this; I'll be watching Survivor, currently being recorded.

Prediction for the speech: Bush will do what he always does when he feels political heat. Spend, baby. Spend like the wind.

Meanwhile, Liberal bloggers Daily Kos and Eschaton are silent. Guess they figured what's the news in one more Bush-spin.

I admired the President's serious and conciliatory demeanor. I think publically acknowledge his responsibility as Chief Executive for the failure of Federal agencies in this address gives him credibility. He's finally said, "the Buck stops here!" I think his plan for enterprise zones and urban homesteading have potential value as investments in the nations economy that eventually will pay dividends. Unlike the hand-out policies of LBJ's Great Society programs, this proposed Newest Deal by the President won't foment dependence on federal dollars.

My concern is management of corruption. I'm pleased Inspectors general will be on the case. Who watches them? How will the Fed that messed up in it's Katrina recovery effort and manages to waste so much of the tax-payers dollars every year manages this rennaisance?

I'm pleased the President made the speech, although I agree with Captain Ed that the President could have delivered it sooner. However, he didn't. He still demonstrated that he can muster up leadership when he needs to. But leadership is much more than talking the talk. It's time for him to roll up his sleeves and get to work. Let's hope he's up to that!