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Posted on Tue, Jan. 18, 2005
D.C. security billed for Bush’s big bash
By Courtland Milloy
WASHINGTON – 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 of Columbia to help pay for the spectacle – by diverting federal money from the city’s homeland security budget, no less.
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.
Now, however, it appears that some in the Bush administration aren’t thinking so clearly about this matter.
D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, D, estimated the inauguration’s cost to the District at $20 million.
When a reporter asked outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge during a news conference about using city homeland security money for “things like bleachers,” Ridge said:
“Well, I ... the request that has been made of my department and which we approved was using some of the money for additional security measures, which is something the mayors of Boston and New York and others have done from time to time. Not aware that they’re spending any of these dollars for infrastructure improvements. But they are entitled and eligible to use those dollars for overtime costs, so because money’s fungible, maybe taking money out of the city’s pot that they might have otherwise put in to overtime, and we’re basically replacing that with overtime dollars.”
Translation, please.
“This amounts to more than robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who represents Washington in the House. “You are robbing the region – and the administration – of the very security that we depend on.”
Paradoxically, law enforcement officials appear to be cracking down on 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.
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.”
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Courtland Milloy is a columnist for The Washington Post.
D.C. security billed for Bush’s big bash
By Courtland Milloy
WASHINGTON – 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 of Columbia to help pay for the spectacle – by diverting federal money from the city’s homeland security budget, no less.
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.
Now, however, it appears that some in the Bush administration aren’t thinking so clearly about this matter.
D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, D, estimated the inauguration’s cost to the District at $20 million.
When a reporter asked outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge during a news conference about using city homeland security money for “things like bleachers,” Ridge said:
“Well, I ... the request that has been made of my department and which we approved was using some of the money for additional security measures, which is something the mayors of Boston and New York and others have done from time to time. Not aware that they’re spending any of these dollars for infrastructure improvements. But they are entitled and eligible to use those dollars for overtime costs, so because money’s fungible, maybe taking money out of the city’s pot that they might have otherwise put in to overtime, and we’re basically replacing that with overtime dollars.”
Translation, please.
“This amounts to more than robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who represents Washington in the House. “You are robbing the region – and the administration – of the very security that we depend on.”
Paradoxically, law enforcement officials appear to be cracking down on 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.
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.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Courtland Milloy is a columnist for The Washington Post.
