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Date	Event
1998	Report on Louisiana insurance risks said losses for homes and cars alone would total $27 billion
Feb 2001	Proposed Bush budget cuts almost half a billion dollars from the Army Corps of Engineers for the 2002 fiscal year.
June 7, 2001	Bush signs a $1.3 trillion income tax cut into law. The cut severely deplete revenues needed to address critical priorities, including flood and hurricane protection.
June ~28 2001	House cuts an addition $389 million dollars in disaster relief from budget
2002	Report on Louisiana insurance risks said losses for homes and cars alone would be $100-$150 billion
2002	Richest 5% of individuals making $300,000 or more receive $24 billion in new tax cuts
Feb 2002	$290 million cut from Army Corps budget. $5 million is provided for upgrading New Orleans levees while government agencies warned that $80 million was needed
Feb 2002	A new business tax cut of $43 billion is enacted. Corporate tax collections are reduced by 21%
Sept 2002	Storm surge from category 2 hurricane Isidore comes close to breaching New Orleans levees
Oct 2002	Based on Isidore experience New Orleans levee board warns that lives and property will be lost if a category three storm hits the city. Army Corps estimates cost of necessary levee improvements at $2 billion
Jan 7, 2003	Bush speech in Chicago outlines a $600 billion tax cut. The top 1% of the population will get 43% of the cut. Because Louisiana's state income tax is based on federal tax law, the state will lose $30 million in tax revenues.
Feb 2003	Another half-billion is cut from the Army Corps. New Orleans part of the budget is cut by two thirds.
May 30 2003	The Times-Picayune reports that government officials warn that major drainage and hurricane protection projects in five parishes in the New Orleans will not be funded. Four more projects will run out of money within a month.
Jan 2004	Washington Times indicates that Bush will make a $1 Trillion tax cut plan a part of his State of the Union address.
Feb 2 2004	Proposed Bush budget cuts $460 million from infrastructure and public works project. The Southeast Louisiana Flood Control project asks for $100 million in federal aid. The administration offers $16.5 million. The Army Corps asks for $27 million to upgrade Lake Pontchartrain protection but gets $3.9 million.
April 2004	Army Corps announces that gaps in the levees around Lake Pontchartrain can not be filled because of budget shortfalls.
June 2004	For the first time in 37 years federal budget cuts have stopped all major work on the east bank levees
June 2004	House passes a $155 billion bill further cutting corporate taxes.
Jan 2005	President pushes a multi-trillion dollar plan to privatize Social Security. A plan to repeal the federal estate tax is pushed.
March 2005	American Society of Civil Engineers warns that 3,500 dams across the country are at risk of failing. Estimated cost of fixing them: $10 billion
April 2005	The president proposes a budget calling for a $71.2 million reduction in federal support for hurricane and flood control projects in New Orleans.
August 29 2005	Katrina hit New Orleans
Sept 2005	Detroit News reports that in 2004 alone, the richest 10 percent of Americans received tax cuts that were "twice as much as the government will spend on job training, $6.2 billion; college Pell grants, $12 billion; public housing, $6.3 billion; low-income rental subsidies, $19 billion; child care, $4.8 billion; insurance for low-income children, $5.2 billion; low-income energy assistance, $1.8 billion; meals for shut-ins, $180 million; and welfare, $16.9 billion."
Sept 2005	DeLay announces that the GOP plans to repeal the estate tax and pass another series of $70 billion cuts is only being temporarily postponed. $366 billion in additional tax cuts will go to the richest 5 percent of Americans over the next five years.
Sept 2005	Bush repeals the Davis Bacon Act. Now employers in New Orleans can pay workers less!
Oct 6 2005	No upgrade for New Orleans levee system
Oct 17 2005	Instead of repealing the tax cuts that benefit the top 1% of the nation to pay for Katrina, the house will cut Medicare, food stamps, infrastructure support, and other benefits that serve the poor.