David Ross wrote:
In the meantime, the Los Angeles Times today reported that the Army
Corps of Engineers repeatedly asked for more funds to renovate and
strengthen the levies around New Orleans. But President Bush and
Congress repeatedly cut the funding to half or less than what the
Army requested.

There was a matching fund for levi maintenance and improvement that was
misappropriated by the city of NO and the state of L. The money was
there for the levis, but instead it got spent on other projects such as
the renovation of the city's Mardi Gras fountain and the construction
of a new state supreme courthouse. If federal funding had been cut
during the years preceding the tragedy (which I doubt is accurate if
that report is coming from The LA Times) then perhaps those earlier
misspent funds had something to do with it.