As previously discussed, president Bush lifted the Davis-Bacon Act early last month. This was done supposedly in order to speed Katrina rebuilding efforts.

Now, Glenn "Insty" Reynolds links to this Mickey Kaus post that has an email from "a seemingly well-informed source deep within the federal bureaucracy".

The source says Bush did this to make it as easy and quick as possible to get things done, and Kaus ends with this:

In sum: 1. Contra Reed, Bush had a perfectly good, non-political reason for suspending Davis-Bacon. 2. Contra Drum (washingtonmonthly. com/archives/individual/2005_09/007171.php), Davis-Bacon doesn't just boost wages. It creates lots of "archaic red tape" and wastes much more money than just the increase in workers' pay...

This government source might be completely right, or he might be feeding Kaus a line, or he might just be looking at the elephant's tail.

Other parts of the elephant might include:

- Why didn't this need to be lifted for all those other hurricanes and natural disasters under both Bush and his predecessors? Surely, the argument that Katrina was just so big will not wash.

- Why was Davis-Bacon lifted for three south Florida counties (Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe) that, AFAIK, just suffered more or less minor damage? (Someone should find out how much in new contracts or old is being spent in those counties to deal with Katrina).

- Weren't the first contracts used for Katrina actually pre-existing contracts that had been negotiated well in advance? (Someone verify how much please).

Of course, while lifting Davis-Bacon could have been a noble gesture on Bush's part, I tend to doubt it.

Instead, I put this in the same corrupt category with Bush's continual support for cheap labor and illegal immigration.

I'm sure Glenn Reynolds will cover this disgusting, anti-American scandal any day now.

UPDATE: Poppy did the same thing during Hurricane Andrew. See "Repealing contract rules is repeat Bush blunder".