The nation is still pouring aid into stricken New Orleans, rescuing the living while beginning to gather the dead. The death toll is estimated to be in the thousands, while tens of thousands of people are still seeking shelter in surrounding cities or awaiting transportation out of New Orleans.

The hurricane which swept through was far stronger than the levees were built to withstand. Weakened by the storm, they gave way and emptied water into the city along with the storm surge from the sea and the rain from the skies. The city is largely filled with water, the pumps overloaded and under repair along with the levees. New Orleans has become a watery grave for the lives of many of its citizens, both the living and the dead.

Many people simply didn't have the resources to get out despite the ample warning of the hurricane's approach. Living on little or no margin of error financially, they stayed where they had lived and many died. What little they had was largely destroyed by the flood waters. Many nearby cities were hit hard as well, also needing assistance for their endangered citizens. Cities further away are straining to take in the survivors and provide for their needs.

Now there is a lot of finger-pointing at the government. Why didn't the federal government provide more funds to repair the levees? The danger was well known for a long time. Why didn't they make a greater effort to evacuate the people? Why is it taking so long to get aid to the survivors and evacuate them now to shelters elsewhere?

The government had in fact provided funds that had done some repairs on the levees, but not enough to withstand a storm of this strength. There wasn't enough money in the federal budget to fund it. Our country has been living without a margin of error in its finances for quite some time, overspending by billions of dollars every year.

When the terrorists hit New York, clearly declaring war on our homeland which required a military response, the government had to fund the necessary actions to protect the country against further terrorist strikes. This further strained our already inadequate resources. Now we are accepting aid from other countries to help cope with the disaster in New Orleans.

This is quite a shock for a nation which generously pours out disaster aid as well as foreign aid for many other countries. We've always thought of ourselves as rich enough that it was our duty to help both our own impoverished citizens as well as the citizens of the world. This has fueled liberal demands for ever more money for ever more government programs.

When a financial crunch like this occurs, the liberals blame it on military spending. However, aren't the military and national guard units responding with disaster relief as well as protecting the country? How many civilian pork barrel projects absorbed billions of dollars which could have built up those old levees? Can we wring the money back out of them to deal with New Orleans's problems now?

How many people were so overburdened with taxes that they didn't have enough money or transportation to get out of the city? How many got out but are desperately seeking aid as their limited funds run out? One effect of the heavy tax rates is that ordinary citizens are limited in the opportunity to build up their own resources to deal with emergencies themselves. The liberals insist that the better off must pay the taxes to help their poorer fellow citizens, but how much money actually goes to the poor or to necessary federal projects and how much to pork barrel projects to build up the elected officials' political power and standing in the parties?

The Bible tells us to sit down and count the costs before starting a project. That is one piece of financial advice that we have been largely ignoring when voting for more government programs. We see the needs, but we don't stop to consider well enough if we can fund the proposed solutions. It isn't just a fight between funds for the military and funds for civilian projects. The federal government has taken on so many supposed responsibilities for the general welfare that the margin of error is long gone.

I wonder if we have enough political leadership to look at the federal budget in this light. We have reached the point that one massive disaster has the potential to drag down the entire country to deal with it. If we are struggling to help the citizens of New Orleans and the surrounding cities, what would we do if we had another major storm or terrorist strike on the same scale? Would we have the resources to deal with it, or would we have to ask the world community for help with that as well? How long would they be willing or able to help us?