The fact that those levee repairs weren't completely funded is one part of the story, and certainly there's plenty of blame to be laid for the Katrina-related levee-failure disaster that occurred last year.

But it's important to recognize some other facts about south Louisiana that have also been covered by the Times-Picayune and other news outlets, and that's how rampant corruption and mishandling has been at every level, from local levee boards and authorities up to city, parish and state-level administratio,n of monies they've already received. There've been some really egregious examples of corruption and misspending with the money that has been made available to these levee-repair authorites, and this sort of wasteful corruption has been going on for decades down there. It's the way politics in Louisiana work, sadly, and last year when those levees failed, one of the first things everyone did was point the finger at inadequate federal funding. But an equally focused finger has always needed to be pointed at how those various authorities have misspent and mishandled the money they've already received and yet not used for the benefit/repair of levees. Had corruption not been a pre-existing and historically enduring problem down there, many of those weakest levees would have already been in much better shape than they were, even with not enough money in recent years.

Anyway, beware of too much blame on lack of federal funding in this particular case. Had every penny in the world been made available to those authorities and boards responsible for the levees, you can bet that critical repairs would not necessarily have been completed--and that impressive portions of that money would have mysteriously disappeared or been misused. That's the way things work in south Louisiana, sadly.