Those of us old enough to remember the Phil Silvers Show know that many a zany plot started when Sgt. Bilko would say “In chaos there is profit.”
Sgt. Bilko , now busy in the halls of Washington, DC, must be thankful for the chaos left by Katrina and Rita.
In this morning’s WaPo Jeffery H. Birnbaum reports
With Congress dangling as much as $200 billion in hurricane-related aid, lobbyists for oil companies, airlines, manufacturers and others are clamoring to get their share.
Earlier this week groups as diverse as the American Institute of Architects and the American Petroleum Institute were freshening their requests for tax breaks and other favors. The architects changed "Katrina" to "hurricane disaster" in their pitch.
The troubled airline industry has been particularly active on the hurricane front. Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. are trying to include relief from their pension obligations in hurricane legislation this year. The firms have been pressing for the change since the spring, before the hurricane season, but are telling lawmakers that the fuel price hikes in the wake of Katrina have made the aid more necessary.
Also in this morning’s WaPo Steven Pearlstein writes
Hold on to your wallets, Mr. and Mrs. America. Congress is in session, Katrina relief is on the agenda and special interests are drumming up schemes to help themselves under the guise of helping others.Let's start with an ingenious proposal to extend, retroactively, federal flood insurance to all those owners of damaged homes along the Gulf Coast who didn't have it.
At first blush, it sounds reasonable. After all, if we want people who have lost everything to return home and rebuild, they'll need a little capital to get started.
But the hidden winner in this arrangement would be the mortgage industry, which otherwise would have to write off billions of dollars in loans when owners stop making monthly payments for homes that are beyond repair. That explains why the idea is being championed by the Consumer Mortgage Coalition, representing large companies that originate, service and guarantee home mortgages.
As I wrote last week, it was pork that made this mess much worse than necessary. More pork will not help us now.
Linked to Beltway Traffic Jam for Sept. 28
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