Posted on 04/14/2005 6:59:08 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Tax Day is a good time to take a hard look at the way government spends your tax dollars - if you have the stomach for it. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Congress has poured nearly $6 billion into homeland security, and this year's $1.7 billion appropriation represents a 306 percent increase over last year's.
But Congress has also ignored the 9/11 Commission's recommendation to use this colossal sum primarily to protect the nation's most vulnerable and strategic targets - including Washington. Instead, hundreds of millions of dollars have been squandered on political pork, according to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Chris Cox, R-Calif., who says the money's being "doled out to every local community in the country, whether they need it or not." In turn, local officials use homeland security funds to purchase such "necessities" as air-conditioned garbage trucks and orange traffic cones.
'Rational manner'
Cox has introduced a bill to change the way these funds are distributed by switching to a risk-based formula. A similar measure failed in Congress last year and this one may too - unless citizens hold their representatives' feet to the fire. The current method of dividing Department of Homeland Security grants between all 50 states along political power lines has to be one of the worst possible ways to ensure that the remaining billions are spent in a rational manner.
Rationality has had little to do with it so far. As "60 Minutes" reporter Steve Kroft found out, the nation's capital is just as lackadaisical with its homeland security funds as the Santa Clara, Calif., sheriff's department, which purchased four Segways to transport its bomb squad in the event of a terrorist attack on Silicon Valley. They won't get very far at 12.5 mph.
Similar outrages can be found closer to home. According to Citizens Against Government Waste, $208,100 in port security grants went to a private yacht company that operates luxury dinner cruises in Washington, Boston and Chicago. What are they protecting, the contents of the bar? Kroft also reported that some of D.C.'s homeland security money was spent on leather jackets, a computerized car towing service, developing a rap song on emergency preparedness and sending city sanitation workers to a Dale Carnegie class.
Meanwhile, a DHS report concluded that it took far too long to inform local officials about an anthrax scare at a Pentagon mailroom and nearby satellite facility in Fairfax County last month, detailing continuing confusion between federal, state and local officials. Nearly 900 local government workers had to take what turned out to be unnecessary antibiotics during the false alarm because the sensors weren't functioning properly. And we're squandering homeland security funds on Segways and rap songs?
So it's actually a good thing the Washington region lags behind the rest of the nation in spending its $145 million in anti-terrorist grants, and that the District of Columbia's legendary bureaucratic ineptitude makes the city likely to miss a June 30 deadline for spending another $46 million. Residents living in and around the nation's most at-risk city have another chance to scream loudly before local officials blow the rest of the funds. Hopefully, they will make the most of it.
High stakes
The nature of terrorism makes domestic attacks extremely difficult to predict or prevent. Given what's at stake, we've at least got to try with the utmost urgency and seriousness. Making a list of probable targets and directing the bulk of federal funding to them should and must be newly appointed DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff's top priority.
The congressional purveyors of pork who've been handing out homeland security funds like candy, without requiring detailed plans for spending or accounting for it, have demonstrated a callous disregard for the common good. So have all the grant recipients who've already frittered away critical resources. God forbid that innocent people die someday because of their inexcusable negligence and stupidity.
Why would the congress critters behave any other way? The money smells just as sweet..
By the way, how's that "limited government" thingie you promised us coming along?
It's interesting that the Segway was used in the article as an analogy for a failed policy. Certainly the TSA belongs in the same category as the Segway.
Perhaps I'm just superstitious...
But I can't help but wonder,
That if you ride one of these things...
You will never get laid.
I'm beginning to think I won't see it in the next 3.75 years.
But, it even gets worse.
Homeland security funded a "patrol boat" to look for Bin Laden in our Narragansett Bay harbor to the tune of $68,000. But, now my town needs to man their second patrol craft, so the town has increased it's harbor patrol staff from 2 ( for the one vessel); to 8 - to be able to staff the two vessels 24/7, and to be sure that no nefarious speeders with dark beards exceed the 5 mile a hour speed limit.
And the town crows about their "free" new boat, yet I'm looking at the new $250k in salary and benefits per year!
Not a chance. Under Bush and the Republicans, you will never see even slightly-smaller government and you will never see a balanced federal budget.
You will see record spending, record deficits and a rapidly-climbing national debt, every year.
And you'll see a tremendous amount of feeble BS in an attempt to rationalize all the waste and seek reelection. Only the picture-lickers will fall for it.
I'm sure not gonna defend the TSA. I never thought federalizing airport security was going to really solve anything. Government, in general, doesn't solve problems. They just have really good meetings scheduled and write reports. But the TSA is "security by committee" and I've never been a big fan of the committee approach to anything. Consensus is the death of leadership.
But that said... what's so dang wrong with the Segway? There's some pretty nifty technical stuff going on there. While the machine has some interesting technology, and has some good applications that could work, they've been made by naysayers to look as if they're only for dorks. Their only problem is a marketing one. TSA's problem isn't marketing, it is substantive. It is actually the reverse of the segway's problem.
*snicker*
"It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world." - Bill Toohey, Balitmore County Police
The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it. -- P.J. O'Rourke
What is your complaint here? The price of the boat? Have you shopped for boats lately? If they bought a decent patrol boat for a mere $68K then they are shopping better than I can....
Looks like a dealer-sponsorship sticker.
I love that picture of the "big bad cops" on their little poofterscooters, with bikers on either side.
Specifically, the District of Columbia spent $100,000 of Homeland Security money to underwrite the writing of a rap song....and $300,000 on an electric car towing machine. Don't know who is wearing those leather jackets..
It would be great of someone could find and post the lyrics to that rap song that our $100,000 in tax dollars paid for. just to see if it makes us all fell more secure.
You miss the point. Do they really need the boat? And do they really need the $250,000 to man it 24/7? Really?
I personally want to see a Segway chase!
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