Are We Safer Now?

Jonathan Chait in the Los Angeles Times (via):

After the 9/11 attacks, both Republicans and Democrats reacted with horror at the prospect of a terrorist chemical attack. Then-Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) sponsored a bill to require tough security measures at vulnerable chemical plants, and the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works passed it by a vote of 19 to 1. But lobbyists for the chemical industry went to work and persuaded Republicans to kill the bill, which they did.

The Republican position since then is that we can rely on voluntary action by the chemical industry. Newspaper exposes have shown that many plants have remained appallingly vulnerable. Domestic security experts have shouted from the rooftops that something has to be done. Nothing has.
…
Let me translate: We know Bush [Paige’s comment: and the Republicans] is serious about homeland security because he says he is.

Of course, Bush said he was serious about planning for Hurricane Katrina too.