Given that the mouth of the Mississippi is a critical node for a navigation system that serves a huge chunk of the country, I should go on record as saying that I don't have a problem with Federal support of maintaining it as a navigatable or non-hazardous area.

Unfortunately, the issue also includes massive Federal support for localized commercial and private interests, primarily insurance and engineering support to allow development in areas where Native Americans wouldn't even have put a village. Anybody remember the opening chapters from Michener's "Chesapeake?" An Indian looking for a place to site a new village abandons a likely island because he sees that the land eroded slightly away in a storm.

I don't have the history of nationalized flood insurance at hand, but suffice it to say that artificial supports have allowed a huge human and economic presence in areas no private insurance company would cover.

Sooner or later, it hits the fan.

The big question is: is it worth it? I don't know how many billions will flow from Federal coffers to fix New Orleans. But on the other hand, I don't know how much Federal revenue New Orleans' tourist industry, shipping, oil, and other industries have poured into the Federal coffers year after year. For all I know, rebuilding New Orleans will pay for itself in a reasonable time.