Washington, D.C., is like your kids. You negotiate an allowance, you lecture about the virtue of thrift and savings, and you grudgingly give them a few extra bucks, when the shopping lust simply cannot be denied.
And by Washington, D.C., I don’t mean the shorthand for the federal government, as in “Washington spending is out of control.” No, we’re talking quite literally here about the District of Columbia, the mysterious city-state that houses the federal government, that stands proud as “Our Nation’s Capital” — and that has to come begging to Congress each year at budget time.
At least when it comes to bookkeeping, when you read the fine print of its governance and history, Washington exists not as a city, not as a state, but as a strange creature that functions at the pleasure of Congress.
Yes, the District had a mayor and a city council and many of the accoutrements of a real, live place, but at the end of the day, when it’s time to raid the cash register, Congress — which is to say, all of us — pay the bills and wish the District of Columbia well.
Yes, yes, the District can levy local taxes as well, to a point, but each year, Congress must take time off from mulling the war in Afghanistan to decide how much to sprinkle around Washington.
This year, D.C. will receive about $667 million in federal bucks — but when Congress supplies the money, Congress get to play games with the priorities. A House of Representatives subcommittee (the subcommittee level is about the level of attention that D.C. normally merits) last month banned the use of city money to pay for abortions and prohibits the use of federal money in the District for medical marijuana programs.
The District also is home to one of the nation’s most creative school voucher programs, providing some flexibility to parents attempting to rescue their kids from the hideous D.C. public schools. As is often the case, President Obama, for instance, came to office opposing the Washington voucher program — and promptly enrolled his beloved daughters in a snobby private school.
The Democrats long targeted the D.C. voucher program for extinction, but it lives on, in part due to the spirited defense of Connecticut U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, a long-time voucher freak who also has an inexplicable affection for D.C.
The District lives as a sort of policy playground for Congress — a bit of school vouchers here, a bit of anti-abortion legislation there — in large part because Congress controls enough of the purse strings to exercise its influence.
For decades, Congress viewed the District as a colonial power might view one of the countries it had snatched from the natives. Washington was a black-majority city, with a string of minority political leaders, embarrassing cases of corruption, and a reputation for mediocre-to-poor city services.
The black majority has now surrendered to white majority and, amid yet another cascade of corruption cases, there is talk of electing a white mayor.
It’s not that many folks outside the Beltway care about all this, but there is invariably an urge to tinker with the place.
Joe Lieberman plans to introduce legislation to end the District’s reliance on the Congressional Sugar Daddy budgeting process.
It’s been talked about in years past — and tends to be met with big yawns all around. If you want to march in the streets in support of the oppressed in D.C., laboring under the despotic fiscal rule of Congress, call Joe’s office. He needs your help.
Laurence D. Cohen is a freelance writer.
