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Text File | 1993-04-08 | 3.7 KB | 82 lines

                                                                                THE WEEK, Page 12

NATION

With a Little Help From Some Friends


As Campaign '92 swirls around them, Floridians begin rebuilding


    In Building 11, the dingy former headquarters of Eastern
Airlines at Miami International Airport, an alphabet soup of
federal and state agencies went to work coping with the
aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. EOC on Floor 2, FEMA on 3, JTF
on 4. CAP, COE, DNR, DER, SBA, GSA, even the ubiquitous IRS. In
the hallways, Army Rangers in combat camouflage crossed paths
with Army engineers in red shirts, sleepy-eyed state emergency
officials in rumpled clothes and even Marilyn Quayle in Bermuda
shorts and a ponytail.

    Twenty-five miles south, in what was Homestead, the Army
began checking in the first of the 17,000 homeless persons who
are expected to occupy five tent cities, possibly until
Christmas and beyond. "No drinking, no drugs and no profanity,"
new arrivals were told. With area residents reluctant to leave
their gutted homes, only a few hundred had taken up the Army's
offer of shelter by week's end.

    Torrential rains and mosquitoes made life even more
miserable for homeowners trying to save their last possessions.
By Red Cross estimates, about 85,000 homes were destroyed or
severely damaged by Andrew's winds, which topped 164 m.p.h. Many
may have to be razed. Insurers, who put private payout losses
at $7.3 billion, were struggling to make contact with
policyholders and vice versa. Angry homeowners have already
filed lawsuits for shoddy construction against firms like Lennar
Homes, southern Florida's largest builder, and Arvida/JMB
Partners.

    For the second time since Andrew tore off into the Gulf of
Mexico, George Bush and his entourage descended into the heat
and bustle of South Florida, anxious to show their concern and
capacity to make things right again. Bush promised to rebuild
the gutted Homestead Air Force Base, which pumped about $400
million into the local farm-based economy, though logic
suggested it should be closed. Bush also agreed to waive the
normal 75-25 federal-local split on disaster costs; Washington
will pick up the full tab.

    The President's largesse, in fact, went well beyond
Florida. In Fort Worth, Texas, he backed the sale of as many as
150 F-16 fighters to Taiwan despite a longstanding policy
against such sales -- and despite a predictable explosion from
Beijing, a regime Bush has taken considerable pains to
cultivate. In Humbolt, South Dakota, and Shallowater, Texas, the
President announced the release of $755 million in crop disaster
relief, as well as $1 billion in export subsidies for U.S. wheat
farmers.

    When Bill Clinton learned of the handouts, he quipped to
AFL-CIO members in Washington, "Now, I'm a Baptist, so I believe
in deathbed conversions. But this is amazing." Clinton was not
alone in noticing the contradictions. China denounced the F-16
sale to Taiwan and threatened to pull out of international
arms-control accords. Europeans, whom the Bush Administration
has been browbeating for being far too generous with their
agricultural price supports, called the wheat deal belligerent.

    Clinton also attacked Bush for backing an across-the-board
tax cut without spelling out how to pay for it. But while the
Democratic candidate adopted a more populist tone last week,
championing Social Security and Medicare as he lambasted Bush
for his ties to the rich, he showed he was no less amenable than
the President to making some political capital on the cheap. As
he toured southern Florida, Clinton sounded every bit as keen
to rebuild Homestead Air Force Base as Bush.