https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2007-02-22/449534/

Whose Job Is It Anyway?

By Richard Whittaker, February 22, 2007, 9:05am, Newsdesk

The New York Times reports today that Habitat for Humanity has been criticized for taking too long to build homes along the Gulf Coast after the '05 hurricanes.

Yes, the charity Habitat for Humanity. Apparently, a charity building 1,000 homes by the second anniversary of Katrina isn't enough for some people. Yes, it's tragic that people made homeless 18 months ago still don't have a place to settle down, but why blame Habitat for Humanity? Isn't this the kind of thing that the government should be doing and should have been doing since Katrina and Rita hit?

This is the second recent major instance of private donations picking up the slack for a government failure. When presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and John McCain paid rousing tribute to the new military rehabilitation facility at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, why weren't they railing about the fact that it was paid for by private donations? Or that this was a new home for the established facility at the Brooke Army Medical Center, rather than an extension of services? Shouldn't rehabilitation of wounded service personnel be the responsibility of the Pentagon?

Just why, exactly, are the federal and state governments not being dragged over the coals daily for the failed reconstruction along the coast and the underfunding of veteran's rehabilitation?