Tomorrow, 20 January, is the Inauguration of President George W. Bush. According to history, it is the 2nd Inauguration for him. Hopefully, it will be a quiet one. There are a variety of ways to look at tomorrow's ceremonies, depending on where you are in the political spectrum. For many, tomorrow is a day of celebration (more on that in a minute). For others, it is a coronation (in the meanest sense of the term). Others feel that it is a national day of mourning. Regardless, tomorrow is going to happen and this is where we should focus.
The festivities that are underway here in DC are incredible. For the first time in a long time, I saw Transit police on the subway before 8 AM. Normal commuter activities (walking fast, crashing through people, taking normal shortcuts, etc.) draw the eye of police and lead to being stopped and questioned for nothing other than what we do every day. There are fences and barricades around the White House and the blocks surrounding it. Manholes have been welded shut (not necessarily a good thing in a city where manhole covers have a tendency to fly into the air with the least cause in normal times), and there have been fighter patrols rattling windows for the better part of the last week. All this because the parade of the United States President will take place tomorrow in open sky for all to see and September 11, 2001 is still a fresh memory for some.
On the other side of the coin, however, (you knew I would get to money eventually right?)at the winter meetings of the nations mayors, there was some pointed questions to Sec. Tom Ridge as to when the Department of Homeland Security would get around to funding all the initiatives that the mayors are being saddled with and not for the Inauguration (more in a minute). The new Federal Response Plan was released and it puts the local jurisdictions in charge of their own destiny in an emergency with the Federal Government playing a supporting role. This is as it should be, except that most local governments can barely afford to pay their first responders now, let alone under the new structure being developed. Part of the reason behind the creation of the Department of Homeland Security was to funnel funds and resources to the local levels to support the defense of the homeland. So where is the money? Let us review:
1) The Inauguration is expected to cost the District of Columbia (which has to absorb the services of a state without the resource base) millions of dollars that it doesn't have in security and manpower...wait a minute...it is going to cost the District of Columbia? Isn't the Inauguration a Federal Event? Well, yes, except that it takes place in the District so the Fed is passing the buck...no, I am not kidding and this upsets the leadership of the District of Columbia...but there isn't a lot they can do about it.
2) The Inauguration festivities are being paid for by the Federal Government. Last stated dollar value was $40 million. Now $40 million dollars is a lot of money for a 2 minute swearing in ceremony in anybody's books. Further, $40 million would help offset some of the aforementioned costs of the District or any other city's first responder organizations.
3) A special budget request is being formed that will include some $40 billion for the war in Iraq plus another $60 billion for aid to the Indian Ocean basin. That is $100 billion dollars leaving the country. Where is the money coming from? It isn't coming from taxes, that's for sure. The 2005 tax revenues have already been spent and most of the 2006 as well. $100 billion dollars would go a long way to securing the homeland, or paying down the deficit, or making sure there really was money in the Social Security trust fund.
So where is the money? Beats me. The cities claim that the states are siphoning it off. Probably a fair statement as far as it goes, but the big question remains - where is the money and the answer is pretty straight forward...it isn't there. And unless some fiscal responsibility is shown by the leadership in Washington on both sides of the aisle, it won't be there, and that is a very scary proposition...and not just from the point of Homeland Security.
6:18:25 PM 
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