In his presidential address to the people of the United States, President George W. Bush gave a speech from Jackson Square in New Orleans tonight addressing the government’s current and future actions toward repairing the flooded city after Hurricane Katrina.

Bush appeared in casual clothing at 9 p.m. to tell the nation how the government has formulated a plan to help rebuild the ravished Gulf area, but more importantly, strengthen the region passed its physical ruins.

‘We will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes,’ Bush said in his address.

Bush said he formulated a three-point plan to help make the region, particularly the city of New Orleans, better and stronger than it was before.

The Gulf Opportunity Zone, as Bush called it, is basically a way to make the destructed area appealing for entrepreneurs and small business owners. It will provide tax relief for small businesses.

‘It is entrepreneurship that breaks poverty,’ he said.

Jeff Stonecash, a professor of political science in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said Bush’s plan gives more of an incentive for a business to locate there because the tax brakes are really attractive for them.

Bush’s second effort to rebuild the Gulf ‘better and stronger’ is by forming Worker Recovery Accounts. These accounts give $5,000 grants to victims from the federal government. These funds will help them construct a new future by letting them attend a vocational school or pursue higher education.

‘It’s basically a voucher for education. There will probably be some rules for who is vouchable, I’m sure,’ Stonecash said.

Bush’s third point was the Urban Homestead Act. This will provide low-income building sites for poverty-stricken residents of the area. He said the owners of the low-income housing will be on a mortgage or non-profit groups like Habitat for Humanity will help build the houses, allowing for more people to own their own homes.

Currently, a quarter million homes are not safe for residents to continue to live in, he said.

Another issue that has gained tremendous media coverage that Bush briefly addressed was the issue of minorities and poverty. Bush said he hopes his three-point plan will help alleviate the poverty in which the southern minorities live.

Bush said he looks to confront this poverty, rise above the inequality that has been in the South since before the civil war, and help build up more minority-owned businesses, while preparing them for the jobs that will be supplied.

‘Minorities are probably a little skeptical, and I don’t know how that’s gonna work for him,’ Stonecash said.

Stonecash said he thinks the Bush’s plans will be interesting to see how they turn out because he said the administration has been focusing on the ‘War on Terror’ and fighting an enemy that the country does not know much about, but Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster and happened in an area that the media can cover easily.

Bush said the Congress has given an unprecedented $60 billion dollars to rebuild the Gulf area. The federal funds will go to rebuilding roads, schools and other such publicly used areas and buildings.

Bush’s general tone of the speech focused on the human spirit and how hundreds of thousands of American citizens have shown their compassion through their services and donations.

‘He captured the general character of the area. That’s equally as important as the economics and the government’s misjudgments,’ said Ryan Bartholomew, a sophomore business and communications major and one of the Tulane University students studying at Syracuse University. ‘He’s giving hope to all the people who are watching that are displaced from their homes.’

‘People want to come back as soon as possible. People have roots in that city that go back four or five generations,’ Bartholomew said.

Bush said Americans have donated more than $100 million. The donations will be divided up into several different relief efforts: The governors will use some of the money for immediate relief for the victims who are still in need of medical attention and food and church groups who will be able to properly distribute the funds to help rebuild communities.

He encouraged the nation to continue to help out in any way they can, whether it be through donations or by physically helping to rebuild the demolished Gulf area.

‘(This will be) the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen,’ Bush said.

Bush said the conditions of the Gulf region are continually improving. He said that 50 tons of medical supplies have been flown into the area to help the injured.

Additionally, Social Security is giving victims checks so they can begin rebuilding their lives and the Department of Labor is formulating adequate unemployment programs while the Postal Service is trying to locate victims to get their mail to them.

‘It struck me as a strange tone at the beginning,’ Stonecash said. ‘There was lots about heroes and great spirit. He didn’t mention the lack of competence by the government until all the way at the end.’

Stonecash said that he thought it would have served Bush better if he would have mentioned the ‘coordination problems’ of the government at the beginning instead of talking about the wonderful things people were doing.

‘He’s a conservative Republican, and I think he was taking the Ronald Reagan approach of ‘I’m not gonna deal with it,” Stonecash said.

Stonecash said he thinks it will be interesting to see how Bush’s plans turn out.

Published on September 15, 2005 at 12:00 pm