Billions being earmarked for reconstruction in Louisiana and adjacent states will bust a budget already $333 billion in the hole. The federal deficit was projected at $333 billion for the current year before the storm slammed into the Gulf Coast more than two weeks ago.

Some fiscal conservatives are expressing alarm at the prospect of such massive federal outlays without cutting other spending.

"It is inexcusable for the White House and Congress to not even make the effort to find at least some offsets to this new spending," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

Bush, who declined to try to put a price tag on the costs, expressed no worry.

"You bet it's going to cost money. But I'm confident we can handle it and I'm confident we can handle our other priorities," he said during a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "It's going to cost whatever it costs."

Thus speaks the man who was always rescued from failed enterprises by his daddy's rich cronies. And why worry about it? The money will come from somewhere. And if it doesn't, well, these are the Last Days anyway. The Rapture will take the saved up to heaven, leaving the rest of us who would not accept Jesus as our personal savior with a ravaged environment and a devastated economy.