WASHINGTON (AP)-Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that repairing the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina will be just as lucrative to Republican corporations as the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been.
"Hurricane Katrina to shaping up to cost us as much as $300 billion or more as the worst natural disaster in American history, or about the same amount as what our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost us in four years of fighting," gloated Cheney at a White House news conference.
"That means money in the bank for our Republican corporations, not only my own Halliburton but others as well like the Carlyle Group, Bechtel, Exxon Mobil, and other fine U.S. companies which are linked to the Republican Party."
He went on to describe how a huge number of reconstruction contracts have already been awarded to Halliburton and other Republican firms, just like in Iraq, and that many more remain to be issued to clean up and repair the mess left by the hurricane.
"The amazing thing here is that we didn't even have to start another gratuitous war like attacking Iran or Venezuela to grab their oil like we did in Iraq in order to reap this bounty," Cheney continued. "All we had to do as sit tight and continue to pump out more and more carbon dioxide from our coal-fired power plants and elsewhere into the atmosphere. Then the greenhouse effect kicked in, sea water heated up, hurricane strength intensified, and then Katrina came right to us."
President George Bush added that these billions of dollars are stimulating the U.S. economy and this proves that his policy of opposing the Kyoto Protocol has been a success.
"My Administration has brought this devastation right to the American homeland, and these billions of dollars are even now filtering their way into Republican bank accounts and into our economy," he stated. "This is supply side, trickle down economic policy on a grand scale. Everyone will benefit, although rich Republicans will benefit most of all."
Bush also noted that his appointing a 'bozo' like Michael Brown to head FEMA and cutting the budget of the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers had immensely helped achieve these fantastic results.
Cheney then added that the latest estimate of the $300 billion cost due to Katrina exceeded even his wildest hopes.
"We've also demoralized a lot of Democratic voters in the South in the process, and this can only help us win in the Congressional elections of 2006," he added with a broad grin on his face. "Hurricane costs may even exceed $300 billion, and just wait for the next ones to hit us."