Blog
President Obama wants to give federal employees a timely 0.5% raise after a two-year pay freeze, but House Republicans have just voted for a third year of frozen pay. Federal employees have not asked for a pass, but there is no way to justify singling them out as a solitary target, repeatedly picked out and picked on for cuts, apart from the rest of the federal budget.
Planned Parenthood took the high road and a smart turn in the road by announcing that they will continue fetal tissue donations, but will no longer accept reimbursements. They have now taken both legs out from under the Republican attack on Planned Parenthood. With the fetal tissue issue gone, Planned Parenthood has exposed the real attack—on women's health and on constitutionally protected abortion. The other leg is the Planned Parenthood select committee—which is now widely recognized as the Republican default strategy when their committees fail.
When you attend a military ceremony, you see no difference among the service members in attendance except for rank. However, across the services, except for the Army, displaying the flag of the District of Columbia and the five territories to honor service members, veterans, and their families is "encouraged" but is left to the "discretion" of the commander whether the flags of the states are displayed.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who I know has been a student of history and of the Constitution, filed amendments in a committee last month that would have overturned D.C. laws. As a result, a bipartisan group of Senators withdrew their budget autonomy bill for the District of Columbia on the advice of city officials, including me. Senator Paul, without so much as a word with any representative of the city, sought to nullify D.C. laws affecting public safety, reproductive health, and workers' rights that local elected officials had enacted.
Republicans cry that the President and Democrats are crying wolf about sequester cuts and furloughs. But, the wolf is already biting. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has already acted on furloughs, even though the U.S. Attorney in D.C.
"Hometown D.C. has always had a vibrant, pulsing musical and cultural life, but the overbearing presence of official Washington often smothered the identity of hometown Washington as much as it trampled our rights as American citizens. Americans knew the nation's capital, but could not tell the difference between official Washington and hometown D.C. Then came the Godfather – Bustin' Loose, and busting D.C. loose, too. Chuck Brown rescued hometown D.C. from the image of a government town that couldn't keep a beat to a hometown with its own funky beat.
Most Americans are unaware that if the federal government shuts down on September 30, the government of the nation's capital, the District of Columbia, will also shut down. There is not a single member of the House or the Senate who desires that outcome. Most members of Congress are mystified when they come to Congress, whatever their party, to find on the congressional agenda the local budget of the District of Columbia – $8 billion raised by the city, not a dime of it federal money.