And this comes as a surprise to anyone? I think not. I don't see how anyone could even pretend anymore. Though they no doubt will try....

"Who cares if the affluent get the lion's share of help!? Class warfare! The poor have bootstraps, what more do they want? HANDOUTS!?"

 

NYTIMES -

GULFPORT, Miss., Nov. 14 — Like the other Gulf Coast states battered by Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi was required by Congress to spend half of its billions in federal grant money to help low-income citizens trying to recover from the storm.

But so far, the state has spent $1.7 billion in federal money on programs that have mostly benefited relatively affluent residents and big businesses. The money has gone to compensate many middle- and upper-income homeowners who lost their houses to flooding, to aid utility companies whose equipment was damaged and to prop up the state’s insurance system.

Just $167 million, or about 10 percent of the federal money, has been spent on programs dedicated to helping the poor, mostly through a smaller grant program for lower-income homeowners.

And while that total will certainly increase, Mississippi has set aside just 23 percent of its $5.5 billion grant money — $1.25 billion — for these programs. About 37 percent of the residents of the state’s coast are low income, according to federal figures.

Mississippi is the only state for which the Bush administration has waived the rule that 50 percent of its Community Development Block Grants be spent on low-income programs, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the grant program. It is also the only state to ask for such waivers.

[....] State officials, from Gov. Haley Barbour on down, insist that just as the storm hurt both rich and poor, the state does not discriminate by race or income when it hands out aid.

The state’s spending plan “moves business to the forefront and forgets about the people on the ground,” said Anthony Thompson, pastor at Tabernacle of Faith Ministries, whose spotless church (rebuilt by volunteers) is next to a moldering subsidized housing project that he says has not been touched since the storm.

In his mostly black neighborhood in west Gulfport, Mr. Thompson said, “I see a lot of people waiting on help; I see a lot of houses still damaged.”

[....]

To be eligible, families had to have carried homeowners’ insurance, so that, as the governor said when he was selling the plan to Congress, “we’re not bailing out irresponsible people.”

But advocates for the poor said that requirement barred many of the least affluent, especially retirees and the disabled, who live on fixed incomes. “The fact is, people who have no money choose food and medicine, and not insurance,” said Ashley Tsongas, a policy adviser for the aid group Oxfam America. “That moral superiority doesn’t recognize the reality people face.”

I've always loved the word "advocate". I know it has a few meanings... or rather, that it does not always apply to good things, but still. "Advocates for the poor". For justice. For a fair shake. It has a nice ring to it. The people affected by Katrina (and other disasters) and ignored by city, state and local governments need all the advocates they can get.

At the same time, I hate the word and the need for it.