President Rules Out Tax Hike to Pay Hurricane Reconstruction & Violence in Iraq Continues to Increase in Today's Details 9/16/05

- There was rejoicing in the streets of New Orleans last night when the power came back on for blocks on end. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans.

- In a prime-time address televised from the storm-battered French Quarter, the president committed the nation to a plan that officials and lawmakers believe could top $200 billion, roughly the cost of the Iraq war and reconstruction, and which promises to reorient government for the balance of the Bush presidency. It will create much larger deficits in the short term, siphon off money that would have been spent on other programs and dramatically shift the focus of the White House, Congress and many state governments for the indefinite future.

- President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes to pay the massive costs of Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government spending must be cut to pay for a recovery effort expected to swell the national debt by $200 billion or more.

- A leading Sunni cleric called for religious and ethnic groups to take a stand against violence as Iraq endured a third consecutive day of sectarian killings - the worst, a suicide car bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed at least 12 worshippers as they left Friday prayers.

- The House passed a measure to establish a special committee to jointly investigate with the Senate the sluggish government response to Katrina. Democrats objected to the Republican-led panel, saying a fully independent outside commission was needed to get to the truth. "The Bush administration and the Republican Congress should not investigate themselves," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said. "And partisanship has no place in this inquiry."

- A new study concludes that rising sea temperatures have been accompanied by a significant global increase in the most destructive hurricanes, adding fuel to an international debate over whether global warming contributed to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

- A pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday.