Tuesday, January 11, 2005
REPOST:Bush Forces D.C. To Pay For His Inaugural With Homeland Security Funds...
(Reposted because the comment thread attached to this topic devolved into a football thread. Whether that was an intentional move by my conservative friends is still unknown. We'll talk football later in the week, boys...)
In his defense, though, it's gonna be one killer party!
D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week's inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects.
Federal officials have told the District that it should cover the expenses by using some of the $240 million in federal homeland security grants it has received in the past three years -- money awarded to the city because it is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack.
But that grant money is earmarked for other security needs, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said in a Dec. 27 letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Williams's office released the letter yesterday.
Is this merely a partisan dust-up? Not quite...
A spokesman for Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, which oversees the District, agreed with the mayor's stance. He called the Bush administration's position "simply not acceptable."
Now would be a good time for a quick review. A president that achieved re-election based on the perception that he would be better at "securing the homeland" has done the following since achieving said re-election:
1.) Nominated a thug like Bernard Kerik to become the next head of the Department of Homeland Security without bothering to properly vet his sordid background.
2.) Demanded that the District of Columbia dip into money needed to protect the city in order to pay for his own already overblown inauguration.
Way to think it through, America...
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