Saw yesterday where one member of Congress is proposing to cut off all of the city’s federal funds. That’s the very way to handle it. In these days of massive federal deficits we should simply decline to fund things were the US government is not welcome. No more of taking the funds but refusing everything else. The days of the Federal Funds Buffet should be over.
I can certainly defend the right of any citizen or jurisdiction to run their lives or government in the way the choose. But we sure don’t have to fund them.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, has threatened to introduce legislation to strip the city of federal funds as a result of the City Council’s vote.
“This is a slap in the face to all brave service men and women and their families,” DeMint wrote on his Web site. “The First Amendment gives the city of Berkeley the right to be idiotic, but from now on they should do it with their own money. If the city can’t show respect for the Marines that have fought, bled and died for their freedom, Berkeley should not be receiving special taxpayer funded handouts.
“I am currently drafting legislation to ensure that American taxpayers aren’t forced to pay for this insult by rescinding all of the earmarks for Berkeley in the Omnibus Appropriations bill, and to transfer the funds to the Marine Corps.”
Among the funding DeMint seeks to remove is $87,000 for the Berkeley Unified School District’s nutrition education program.
“If there’s a senator from South Carolina that wants to take healthy food away from the children of Berkeley because the City Council has an issue with the military recruiting downtown, I just think that’s absurd,” said Ann Cooper, director of nutrition services for the district. “We’re in the throes of a health crisis (because of childhood obesity), and Berkeley is one of the very few cities in America that’s actually really working on children’s health through school food. Why anyone would want to take away healthy food away from children is just beyond me.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1963527/posts