On September 15, 2005, President Bush made a solemn commitment to the residents of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina:

Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.

Yet, despite Bush’s widely publicized “feel-good” visit to the city last week to mark the two-year anniversary of the storm, his administration continues to bungle the recovery effort nearly as badly as it bungled the rescue effort. A new report issued by the Institute of Southern Studies reveals a stark reality that belies Bush’s sunny rhetoric. Some of the numbers:

$116 Billion: Amount that the Bush administration says has been spent on Gulf Coast recovery since Katrina.
30%: Estimated percent of those funds that are for long-term recovery projects.
$8.75 Billion: As of August 2006, value of Gulf Coast contracts that a Congressional study found were “plagued by waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement.”
$8.4 billion: Amount appropriated to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restore storm defenses.
Less than 20%: Percent of those funds that the USACE has spent, as of July 2007.

“They talk and talk about what they’re going to do,” said one resident of New Orleans. “There was supposed to be all this money, but where’d it go? None of us got any.” Given Bush’s pattern of ignoring New Orleans in the time between ceremonial photo ops, it looks as though the residents of New Orleans will be left hanging for months to come.