Richard D. Cushing
On Monday 23rd August 2010, @VoteSmartToday said:
The theory behind #federal #aid to #local #governments is that the federal government can operate programs in the #national interest to efficiently solve local problems. Now that whole concept is laughable on the face of it. I’m not sure how any #politician can even say that sentence with a straight face!
When has the #federal #government ever operated more “efficiently” than anything with which it might be sensibly compared? No. No! I don’t think this theory holds water on the “efficiency” factor.
But let’s take a look at this other matter of “programs in the #national interest.” Let’s be serious here! Outside of those few matters for which the people should truly look to the federal government--such as our national #defense--#politicians do almost nothing in Washington, DC, “in the national interest.” In fact, a great deal of the time and money spent by the staff of #Congressmen and #Senators is not, in fact, spent on “the national interest.”
Instead, they spend a huge portion of their time and energy on “the #local interest,” for which the reader might instead read: “Securing ‘#pork’ for their local constituents in every effort to leverage the #taxpayers’ money to buy #votes from the very taxpayers they have pick-pocketed.”
#Federal #aid to states and localities is nothing short of #politicians hoodwinking the taxpaying public into believing that by giving some of the #money they have confiscated from the taxpayers back through “aid,” they have somehow done the citizens a great favor.
