2 Plus 2 Equals......... We Need More Money.

It seems Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco's Road Home recovery program is even more broke than first thought, and - of course - she wants more money from the Feds to cover the difference. Remember, this was a 7.5 billion dollar program when it began, and there have been warning signs for months about a crisis. Now they're saying that need another 6.6 billion dollars to "fix" the problem. That's 14.1 billion dollars total. Is that enough? How really broke is Road Home?

Now I'm not a math wizz (I've got a degree from LSU, for goodness sake), but I do have a calculator and fingers.

According to Road Home's website, there are currently 184,678 applicants. OK. Now let's just say, for sake of argument, that they all get an "average" payout of, say, $80,000, a bit more than half the maximum amount. And let's add 10% onto to the top of that for ICF mismanagement of the program. So what is Road Home going to truly cost farmers in Iowa and moms in New Jersey? (blogger whips out his Windows calculator) 184,678 times $80,000 times 1.10. Which would equal.......

$14,774,240,000.00. That's 14.7 Billion Dollars.

(blogger rubs eyes) Um..... let's try that again.

184,678 times $80,000 times 1.10, equals..... Yep. $14,774,240,000.00.

Why is this a surprise now? Are you telling me no one had the foresight to run these kind of numbers at the beginning of this mess, to see what the "high end" might be? Does anybody in the Governor's Office Of Community Development, or at Blanco's highly-paid management experts, know basic multiplication??

All I can say folks is, January 1st won't come soon enough.