Last week, the White House decided to mess with Texas.

Our state endured one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history, and we've been offered a tiny drop's worth of federal support to help us rebuild and prepare for the next flood.

The $44 billion funding proposed by the Office of Management and Budget provides less for resilience than Congress offered after Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Sandy. It includes neither coastal storm surge protection nor a third reservoir nor bayou improvements. Instead, Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico will have to compete for flood risk mitigation grants drawn from a $12 billion pot. That entire program isn't enough to fund an Ike Dike, let alone the other much-needed flood prevention projects documented in Gov. Greg Abbott's $61 billion proposal.

Abbott and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, have both deemed the White House plan as "inadequate." Congressman John Culberson, R-Houston, called it a "nightmare for those who are trying to rebuild their lives." Mayor Sylvester Turner declared it a "formula for failure."

From governor on down, the developing political consensus seems to be that Trump's grand promises for a "bigger, better, stronger" recovery have proven to be hollow.

So why did the Trump administration roll out such a brazenly inadequate and frankly insulting recovery plan?

"Texas has not put any state dollars into this process," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "We feel strongly that they should step up and play a role and work with the federal government in this process."

Usually Texans only get to smell that kind of bull pie at the rodeo. State agencies have incurred nearly $500 million in costs. Abbott cut a $50 million check from the state Disaster Relief Fund and delivered it in person to help fund Houston's recovery.

Maybe this will be the moment of panic that Abbott needs to call a special session of the state Legislature and jump-start a state-led process.

Perhaps if Houston had suffered a bit more, we'd garner greater sympathy in Washington. Perhaps if amateur boaters hadn't saved people from a watery doom or the Houston Police Department hadn't risked hell or literal high water to keep the city safe, the vision of floating corpses would have shamed the federal government into action.

But when facing the fury of Mother Nature, untold Texans stepped up to save their friends, neighbors and total strangers. No challenge proved insurmountable, no price was too high. We Texans did our duty.

We wish we could say the same about Donald Trump.