Two Years After Katrina: ‘Our National Shame’

He also insisted that there is much more to be done and his administration will do it. Just as predictably, his would-be replacements Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards lambasted Bush’s efforts as hopelessly flawed. They insisted that there is no reason to believe that he’ll improve on the anemic effort.

They all missed the real story and tragedy of Katrina: the naked face of poverty that shocked the world two years ago remains just as naked and shameful two years later. And Bush and the Democrats are to blame for it.

For weeks after the shocking scenes of the black poor fleeing for their lives from the floodwaters in New Orleans, Bush and the Democrats talked tough about a full court press on poverty. In that instant, talk of fighting poverty became almost respectable in business, public philanthropy, congressional and White House circles.

In a post-Katrina assessment of public opinion on poverty, more Americans agreed that the government should do more to end poverty.

Civil rights leaders, the Congressional Black Caucus, and anti-poverty groups saw an opening and pounded on the Bush administration and Congress to do something about whittling down the ranks of the estimated 35 to 40 million Americans that still wallow in poverty. That was two years ago.