I learned from Hurricane Katrina that preventing and meeting disasters require values like excellence, resilience, civility and unity.
Donna Brazile | Opinion columnist
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Biden announces COVID vaccine mandates for businesses, federal workers
The president unveiled a new “six-pronged strategy” to contain COVID-19 in the U.S with the growing threat of the Delta variant.
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Once again, we’ve seen that killer storms, like killer viruses, don’t discriminate based on political party. It’s time we stop the endless partisan feuding and fighting tearing us apart and defend ourselves against these deadly threats as a united people.
There is no question that human-caused climate change is making hurricanes develop with greater force. There is also no question that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, that more pandemics will follow, that safe and effective vaccines are the best way to protect us, and that masks are needed when infections are rampant.
So why are we fighting with each other when we should be fighting climate change, improving our infrastructure and fighting the coronavirus?
Growing up on the Gulf Coast near New Orleans, I lived through multiple hurricanes – Betsy, Camille, Frederic and more — and saw the havoc, chaos, destruction and death such storms bring. As a young girl, I saw “The Wizard of Oz” as a horror movie because of the roaring winds that carried Dorothy into the unknown.
Every member of my large extended family was displaced by Katrina. Some of my relatives lost their homes. Most rebuilt. A few began new lives in other states. Thankfully, none lost their lives.
Even worse than Katrina, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 people.
Bipartisan effort to rebuild
There are lessons from our recovery from Katrina and the 9/11 attacks that we should apply today in our fight against climate change and COVID-19.
Led by President George W. Bush, members of Congress from both parties united to approve $14.6 billion to redesign and rebuild the levee system in the New Orleans area — and when Ida hit, the levees held. The Army Corps of Engineers will ask for an additional $3.2 billion to make further improvements to the levees, and I hope the request will win bipartisan support as well.
Americans also united behind President Bush to strengthen our defenses against terrorism and depose the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which gave harbor to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. President Barack Obama approved the raid by Navy SEALs that cornered and killed bin Laden in 2011.
There has not been a major terrorist attack against our homeland since the horror of 9/11 – good news both parties can take credit for.
U.S. forces exited Afghanistan at the end of August under a deal negotiated by the Trump administration and carried out by the Biden administration. Regrettably, the Taliban are back in power, but they have pledged not to again allow Afghanistan to become a launching pad for international terrorism and to improve their treatment of women and girls. Only time will tell whether they stick to their pledges.
Crisis should bring us together
Moments of crisis like the 9/11 attacks, deadly storms caused by climate change, and pandemics can shape a nation for the better, or they can spiral out of control from hyperpartisan criticism and infighting.
If we apply the lessons of our successful response to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, we can take the steps necessary to fight climate change, rebuild our infrastructure nationwide as we rebuilt Louisiana’s levies, and get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Getting this done will require enacting the $1 trillion bipartisan traditional infrastructure bill already passed by the Senate. Congress should also enact the broader $3.5 trillion human infrastructure and jobs plan President Biden has proposed. And an overwhelming number of Americans need to get vaccinated against COVID.
I’ve spent my life working to elect Democrats and defeat Republicans. But after Katrina struck, I didn’t attack President Bush for the disaster that hit on his watch. Instead, I spoke with him and asked: “Mr. President, how can I help you?”
“Civility,” Bush said. He was right.
Several weeks after Katrina, Democratic Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco asked me to serve on the Louisiana Recovery Authority board as an unpaid lobbyist to Congress to seek funds for rebuilding. I took the assignment, and would have done so just as enthusiastically if asked by a Republican governor.
I learned from Katrina that preventing and meeting disasters require core values like excellence, resilience, civility and unity. Unity flows from civility.
In a column I wrote 16 years ago after Hurricane Katrina, I said: “Unity springs from mutual respect, from setting aside the blame game and working, in good faith and trust, with one another.” Those words remain just as true today.
Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) is a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors, an ABC News contributor, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and the King Endowed Chair in Public Policy at Howard University. She previously served as interim chair of the Democratic National Committee and of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute, and managed the Gore campaign in 2000.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
