Yesterday I mentioned that the Federal Government was going to stick the District of Columbia with the bill for the bulk of the security costs for the Inauguration today. Last night in the Washington Post, the dollar value ($12 million) was cited as the exact amount of the bill that the District is going to have to pick up (at least thus far).
Now for those who don't follow such things, the District of Columbia is the federal city, if you will, where the bulk of the land is owned by the Federal Government, where the museums and monuments are located and where the President lives (at least when he is not on vacation - like this one seems to be more often than not). The city is expected to provide for the roads, schools, first responders, courts, prisons and such. Already you can see that there are things that happen in this city that do not happen in any other city in the country. Very few cities have their own prison systems. That is generally a state function. Similarly, few cities have as much land set aside that is essentially untaxable and thus, cuts into the already limited funding base. Further, the District of Columbia has a very small population (about 300,000 depending on the year) and a large majority of those permanent citizens are not wealthy which further cuts into the funding.
To add insult to injury, the District also has no elected leadership in Congress other than one non-voting member in the House of Representatives, so its voice is rarely heard (not that the delegate is not vocal - the current one is, but no one has to listen to her). There are no senators. Transfer payments to the District from the Federal Government for fair use are controlled by people that don't (generally) live in the District but absorb its resources. They put all kinds of strings on them that no other city or state would accept and seem to have nothing but contempt for the District in general.
So to throw a $12 million bill at the District government for security for a federal event is not a surprise, even for the District leaders. What it is, though, is an insult and a further indication of just how far this administration has gone to alienate itself from the rest of the country, let alone the world.
6:10:34 PM 
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