In the 1993 film “Groundhog Day,” actor Bill Murray portrayed a self-important TV weatherman in Pittsburgh, forced to cover the annual Punxsutawney Phil event over and over again until he finally re-examines his life. D.C.’s ongoing attempt to gain budget autonomy from Congress uncomfortably resembles the film’s time loop, so perhaps city officials should do some re-examining of their own.
In 2009, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Instead of granting budget autonomy to their most loyal jurisdiction, they lifted a decades-long ban on spending local tax dollars on abortions, which the incoming GOP House majority reinstated in 2010. The city’s budget situation was exactly the same as before.
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