By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
About a quarter of the $148 billion budget for reconstruction after Japan's March 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster has been spent on unrelated projects, including subsidies for a contact-lens factory and whaling research.
In Rikuzentakata, a fishing enclave where 1,800 people were killed or disappeared as the tsunami scoured the harbor, rebuilding has yet to begin in earnest, said Takashi Kubota, who left a government job in Tokyo in May 2011 to become the town's deputy mayor.
The first priority, he said, has been finding land for rebuilding homes -- on higher ground.
