Was anyone out there shocked — shocked! — that the Democrats in the House and Senate threw the District of Columbia under the proverbial bus? And that President Obama was at the wheel? There was no way that the denizens of the District were going to emerge from last week’s budget brinkmanship without getting badly bruised. Deal or no deal, we were going to get mauled.
If the federal government had shut down for lack of a deal between the two parties, the District government would have had to close, as well. We would have been the only metropolis in the nation that could not function in a normal fashion, because, dear readers, we are merely a division of the federal government. Trash hauling is deemed “nonessential,” and therefore it would have not been collected.
But when the deal between President Obama and Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Harry Reid was consummated close to the midnight hour on Friday, the District still came out on the short end.
Republicans had added riders to the budget bill that would bar the District from using its own taxpayers’ funds to provide abortions for poor women. It’s quite likely that when the final bill is inked, Congress will also kill a very successful needle exchange program. What Congress did approve is a private-school voucher program that will allow D.C. residents to use public funds to attend religious schools.
The Republican riders came layered with hypocrisy. They stepped on state’s rights, by putting the federal government in charge of local matters. They used budgeting to enforce social policy, in the abortion clause. The school voucher program violates the Constitution’s aim to separate church and state. But no one was surprised by the Republicans, driven more than ever by conservative factions.
My question is, where were the Democrats who might have protected the District’s limited self-government? This is a jurisdiction that reliably votes 9-1 for the Dems. Surely, the Democrats would protect our right to spend our own tax funds without Big Brother sequestering some funds and spending others.
Truth be told, Democrats have rarely helped the District become more independent. LBJ championed D.C. self-government when he was president, but it was Richard Nixon who signed the Home Rule Act. Ronald Reagan didn’t do much for us. With Bill Clinton’s help, we did reorganize our finances and move toward fiscal health. George W. Bush put Chief of Staff Josh Bolton, a friend of D.C., in charge of District affairs, and we did well. To Barack Obama, the District is merely a backdrop for speeches; for first lady Michelle Obama, we provide a stage for veggie gardens and farmers markets.
But when it came to hard-core politics and money, neither the Obamas nor the Democrats in Congress have much interest in our rights — as taxpayers or American citizens.
We are only pawns in their game.
But at least Congress will let us pick up our own trash.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
