One of These Days Alice, POW, Straight to the Bone!

James L. Buckley has a modest proposal to knock nearly 20% right off the top of the federal budget:

Roughly one-sixth of the federal budget goes for nothing that’s a matter of national concern, but for grants to state and local governments. Those grants fund a vast array of programs and projects, such as:

$65 million so New York and New Jersey can promote themselves as “good places to do business.”

$3.9 million for the airport in St. Cloud, MN, which has no daily commuter flights.

$532,000 to beautify one block on Main Street in Rossville, KS (pop. 1,150).

As Senator Everett Dirksen used to say, “A million here, a million there and pretty soon we’re talking real money.” Since Dirksen’s day, federal giveaways for state/local “needs” have grown tremendously.

There are two problems with this otherwise fine idea, and the first one stems from my well-founded cynicism. That is, the states don’t want to lose the money and Washington doesn’t want to stop forking it over — one hand can’t wash the other if you drop the soap, after all. The money might appear to be wasted to our eyes, but that’s not how they see things in Washington and in 50 state capitals.

The other problem is our unfunded entitlements. Sure, we could save 18% right now, but after a few years of entitlement growth the savings would drop to an effective 15%, then 10%, then nothing.

We can trim all the fat off the budget, every year, forever — but until we tackle entitlement reform, all we do is slightly delay in the inevitable.