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Washington
Mar. 31st, 2025 03:44 pmThe Guardian is reporting that Republicans are exerting control over Washington, D.C.
That would be nothing new. When Republicans control both houses of congress they switch from bamboo utensils and compostable take out containers in the cafeteria and switch the congressional power plant -- which is only on in an emergency -- from natural gas to coal. The rates of asthma and elderly deaths in SW DC went up when the Republicans controlled congress and there was a snow storm. They also tend to take away money for needle exchange programs in a city where 1 out of 20 adults -- approximately 5% of the population -- was HIV positive in 2016.
I would like to take exception to one item in the article. It states that "It was unclear how the language approving Washington DC’s budget was removed from the federal spending bill, but just after it passed the Senate, the Republican Susan Collins described the omission as “a mistake”, and the chamber unanimously passed her legislation to fix it."
It wasn't a mistake. The lists that I'm still on for DC sent out a plea for people to call any representative or senator they could to beg them not to cut the budget for DC. Since I'm now a Georgia resident, I called both Senators and my Representative and asked that the DC budget not be cut.
The 2018 Federal Tax revenue numbers -- the most recent ones I could quickly find that included the District of Columbia -- showed that Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming combined paid 27,443,756,000. The District alone paid 28,443,717,000.
Let's be clear: this spending bill was NOT regulating federal monies. It was dictating how DC was allowed to spend its own "state" tax money. It will create illness, illiteracy, and unemployment because the monies are being take from healthcare, public schools, and the Metro system, aka how most of the Greater Washington Area gets to work.
The current president -- and if I accept the constitution, I must accept that he is my president -- says he wants to make the District "safe, beautiful, and prosperous." Prosperous? There are 17 states between DC and North Dakota, the most prosperous of the states I listed. Safe? The murder rates have been going down for years. This budget cut is likely to raise the rate of robbery and car theft, based on my experiences on the ANC and how the rates fluctuate with the economy. Beautiful? I've lived in or visited some of the cities widely considered the most beautiful in the world. DC beats them thanks to L'Enfant and Banneker's plans for city vistas. There are U.S. cities that have some gorgeous views, including Boston and San Francisco, but they don't have as many points of beauty, in my opinion, as the District of Columbia.
One item that I didn't find covered in the Guardian article is funding for clean-up after parades and protests. When I first lived in the District, Congress appropriated enough federal money to help cover security and clean-up for most public events to last from January to September. Anything in the autumn came out of DC's funding. Bear in mind, there are not enough Federal police or park rangers to cover this and the military isn't allowed to do it. Metropolitan Police officers are the main coverage for these events. DC Public Works empties the trash, cleans up the routes, etc. At the beginning of 2017, before Trump's inauguration, the newly Republican congress cut that funding so that DC picks up the tab for safety and clean-up from March.
This is important. It may not be high on your radar if you have no personal connection to the District, but if, as so many tourists said, "it's our city, too," then these issues need to be addressed.
The District was the last city in the country to be desegregated because Congress liked segregation. Our schools and families suffered greatly from AIDS in the 1980s because the homophobes also tended to damn IV drug users. And yet we built a rainy day fund that allowed us to process unemployment during COVID faster than any state in the union -- bear in mind that Vermont and Wyoming have fewer people than the District. This is a huge thing we managed during a pandemic. But DC is being punished for being Black, predominantly Democrat, and generally vocal about fairness.
That would be nothing new. When Republicans control both houses of congress they switch from bamboo utensils and compostable take out containers in the cafeteria and switch the congressional power plant -- which is only on in an emergency -- from natural gas to coal. The rates of asthma and elderly deaths in SW DC went up when the Republicans controlled congress and there was a snow storm. They also tend to take away money for needle exchange programs in a city where 1 out of 20 adults -- approximately 5% of the population -- was HIV positive in 2016.
I would like to take exception to one item in the article. It states that "It was unclear how the language approving Washington DC’s budget was removed from the federal spending bill, but just after it passed the Senate, the Republican Susan Collins described the omission as “a mistake”, and the chamber unanimously passed her legislation to fix it."
It wasn't a mistake. The lists that I'm still on for DC sent out a plea for people to call any representative or senator they could to beg them not to cut the budget for DC. Since I'm now a Georgia resident, I called both Senators and my Representative and asked that the DC budget not be cut.
The 2018 Federal Tax revenue numbers -- the most recent ones I could quickly find that included the District of Columbia -- showed that Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming combined paid 27,443,756,000. The District alone paid 28,443,717,000.
Let's be clear: this spending bill was NOT regulating federal monies. It was dictating how DC was allowed to spend its own "state" tax money. It will create illness, illiteracy, and unemployment because the monies are being take from healthcare, public schools, and the Metro system, aka how most of the Greater Washington Area gets to work.
The current president -- and if I accept the constitution, I must accept that he is my president -- says he wants to make the District "safe, beautiful, and prosperous." Prosperous? There are 17 states between DC and North Dakota, the most prosperous of the states I listed. Safe? The murder rates have been going down for years. This budget cut is likely to raise the rate of robbery and car theft, based on my experiences on the ANC and how the rates fluctuate with the economy. Beautiful? I've lived in or visited some of the cities widely considered the most beautiful in the world. DC beats them thanks to L'Enfant and Banneker's plans for city vistas. There are U.S. cities that have some gorgeous views, including Boston and San Francisco, but they don't have as many points of beauty, in my opinion, as the District of Columbia.
One item that I didn't find covered in the Guardian article is funding for clean-up after parades and protests. When I first lived in the District, Congress appropriated enough federal money to help cover security and clean-up for most public events to last from January to September. Anything in the autumn came out of DC's funding. Bear in mind, there are not enough Federal police or park rangers to cover this and the military isn't allowed to do it. Metropolitan Police officers are the main coverage for these events. DC Public Works empties the trash, cleans up the routes, etc. At the beginning of 2017, before Trump's inauguration, the newly Republican congress cut that funding so that DC picks up the tab for safety and clean-up from March.
This is important. It may not be high on your radar if you have no personal connection to the District, but if, as so many tourists said, "it's our city, too," then these issues need to be addressed.
The District was the last city in the country to be desegregated because Congress liked segregation. Our schools and families suffered greatly from AIDS in the 1980s because the homophobes also tended to damn IV drug users. And yet we built a rainy day fund that allowed us to process unemployment during COVID faster than any state in the union -- bear in mind that Vermont and Wyoming have fewer people than the District. This is a huge thing we managed during a pandemic. But DC is being punished for being Black, predominantly Democrat, and generally vocal about fairness.
