Boondoggle

If you don’t live in Washington, DC, you’d probably be appalled at how the Feds push people around here. First off, there’s the edict from the Bush administration telling the city that they have to cover something like $12 million in inauguration security costs, especially galling considering that Kerry won D.C. by an astounding 90%. Maybe it’s Bush’s way of punishing them.
Now, it’s my opinion that, in the midst of a war and with the largest deficit of all time, Bush should not be spending $40 million (plus almost double that in security costs) for a big party; Franklin Roosevelt had the right idea — get sworn in, then back to the White House for chicken salad sandwiches.
Instead, the inauguration gives the Bush camp yet another opportunity to spread the gospel of fear, the only thing that keeps him in power. If you live or work in DC, you’re in for a grand old time: snipers on rooftops, security checkpoints set up on sidewalks (at least, on sidewalks that are still open); people not allowed to walk down the street without being searched. Office buildings are being forced to close by the Secret Service. I can only imagine that people who live on Pennsylvania Avenue in expensive condos will have a police escort in their living rooms. Beginning days before the ostentatious display, roads will be closed — eventually, 100 square blocks of DC will be shut down and another 100 will be restricted — manhole covers will be welded shut, street lights will be removed. Among the list of things you’re not allowed to carry into the “zone”: aerosol cans, sticks for placards, packages, coolers, glass containers, backpacks, laser pointers, bags larger than 8″x6″x4″, and, despite complaints from conservative Christian groups, crosses.
My friend Jon lives downtown and has already been told that he can’t go to his office, which is around the corner from the White House. If he does, he’ll have to pass through 3 checkpoints, and the Secret Service will be stationed on the roof. In any case, he also lives within the restricted area, and probably won’t even be allowed to leave home, much less walk down to the office.
I won’t be leaving home. It’s hard enough to get to work on a good day, I’ll be damned if I’m going to be inconvenienced yet again by this bastard of a president.
Courtland Milloy has a few words about this:

Let’s see if I’ve got this straight: The Bush White House is planning to hold the most expensive presidential inauguration in U.S. history, in the midst of a war in Iraq and in the aftermath of a disaster that has the world in mourning, and the administration wants the District to help pay for the spectacle — by diverting federal money from the city’s homeland security budget, no less.

Surely, the Bush administration couldn’t be that thoughtless. Could it?

“This administration is trying, belatedly, to tighten its financial belt,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), told me yesterday. “Having spent the country into a dangerous deficit through tax cuts for the wealthy and the invasion of another country, they’re trying to pinch pennies wherever they can.”

Just four years ago, this same George W. Bush managed to pay for his inauguration without picking the District’s pocket, just as every other newly elected president had done for 200 years. Then again, that was before the nation’s $2 trillion surplus disappeared.

… Paradoxically, while the diversion of funds would almost certainly weaken the District’s security, law enforcement officials appear to be cracking down on District residents in preparation for the inauguration.

“I received a complaint from someone whose daughter was stopped by an agent who asked if she lived in the area,” Norton said. “This was up near the Convention Center. Now, it’s way too early for this kind of thing. No one should be stopping anybody and asking them if they live in the area. I’m about to go off on that one right now.”

So, let me see if I’ve still got it straight: The Bush administration wages war on the cheap, sending too few troops with too little armor to Iraq, but goes whole hog when it comes to throwing a party; it wants to divert District homeland security money for the inauguration while security forces harass District residents in the name of security.

“The message from the Bush administration is: We’re not spending any more from here on in,” Norton said. “That’s why they didn’t wake up for several days to the tsunami disaster. Don’t change your policy of giving tax breaks to the wealthy. Just pinch pennies wherever you can, even if you look insensitive to suffering, even if you look too cheap to pay for your own inaugural, even if you take homeland security funds to pay for your fun.”

Hail to the chief.

An interesting point, as the Washington Post also reports the following:

The Bush administration is preparing a budget request that would freeze most spending on agriculture, veterans and science, slash or eliminate dozens of federal programs, and force more costs, from Medicaid to housing, onto state and local governments, according to congressional aides and lawmakers.

Get ready, states. He’s passing the buck. (And isn’t it reassuring that the “support our troops” president is once again targeting veterans’ benefits?)