Try to make some sense out of this. Fernando Solorzano, the Port of Panama’s chief official, told Reuters that he expects Panama’s ports to boom despite the slowdown in U.S. consumer demand. In spite of this slowdown and the possible drop in trade between China and the U.S. East Coast ports, he said, the fundamentals are in place for continued growth in Panama’s shipping sector. He told Reuters that he expects his country’s principal ports to handle up to 5 million TEUs this year, a significant increase over the 4.1 million TEUs handled in 2007.

“If everything goes well and continues as it has been, I believe we can reach this goal,” he said.

Mr. Solorzano is living in fantasy land. Just four days earlier, and just a few days after the Port of New Orleans asked Louisiana’s lawmakers to subsidize its $ 1 billion development plan, the port revealed, to everyone’s dismay, that its volume of waterborne commerce had hit a 17-year low. But we can be sure that a man in Mr. Solorzano’s position keeps abreast of maritime issues, and we can be sure that his interview with Reuters was deliberately timed to encourage a favorable vote from Louisiana’s lawmakers on the Port of New Orleans’ request for taxpayer mega-bucks.

So why should he be interested in that billion dollar request? Remember Rodolfo Sabonge? The VP of Research and Market Analysis for the Panama Canal Authority? He addressed the expansion workshop in Tampa last month, and pitched the idea that an expanded Panama Canal would greatly influence world trade and U.S. ports in particular. And his reasoning?

“These ports should be ready for larger and bigger ships that will go through the expanded Canal,” he said. “Anticipating infrastructure needs in the near future is the key to their growth,” he insisted.

So, using convoluted logic, it follows that if U.S. lawmakers can be convinced that an expanded Canal will have a positive effect on the U.S. economy, then somehow, U.S. taxpayers will be tricked into supporting the expansion of the Panama Canal. It also follows that if the Canal is expanded (at the expense of U.S. taxpayers), then mega-ships (which are paid for by U.S. taxpayers) will be able to bring millions of TEUs to U.S. East Coast and Gulf ports. But of course, these mega-ships will first require that U.S. East Coast and Gulf ports be dredged, (and dredging programs are also paid for by U.S. taxpayers), otherwise these mammoth container ships will be unable to deliver those millions of TEUs (which U.S. taxpayers can no longer afford !). Port officials have gone to the well once too often, and they’re heading that way again.

Let’s hope that Louisiana’s lawmakers, and especially Governor Bobby Jindal, can see through this scam. It would take that billion dollars, and a few more billion along with it, to repair and restore just a portion of the damage left in the wake of Katrina. Nothing should take precedence over that effort. Jobs and renewed purchasing power by Louisiana consumers would be the result.

The ripped-off U.S. taxpayers have lost their purchasing power and this is the reason for the lowered volumes at the Port of New Orleans as well as a number of other U.S. ports.