Beyond Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

what is the federal government for?

DOGE promised to root out wasteful, fraudulent, and abusive federal spending. Without getting into their success or failure at that effort, it’s not enough. As I’ve recently said elsewhere, the premise gives up a fight without bothering to have it.

Near my home, this month, a group of Pasadena restaurants are proudly announcing an upcoming event that will showcase their new outdoor dining areas. That’s it: Some existing restaurants will have new areas where you can eat. This turns out to be a function of federal government:

If you click on that link and read the news story, you’ll notice the complete absence of a real description of the federal grant, including the absence of a dollar figure. But Rep. Judy Chu lists the grant among her annual accomplishments for 2023:

Project Sponsor: City of Pasadena
Project Name: On-Street Dining Parklet Construction
Project Sponsor Location: 100 N. Garfield Ave., Pasadena, CA 91109
Requested Amount: $1,500,000
Project Description: This project will allow the City to purchase and install materials to create semi-permanent on-street dining areas in the public right-of-way. The creation of outdoor dining areas allows the City’s restaurants to expand their business into the public right of way to serve patrons who remain cautious of the impacts of COVID. The federal funds will allow the City to extend the temporary on-street dining initiative with more cost-effective purchased outdoor dining platforms, or pavilions that will also serve as parklets in the off-hours of outdoor dining.

Chu lists a lot of federally funded projects like this, entirely local projects that aren’t life-and-death. Here’s the list for FY 2024. The City of Alhambra got $500,000 for its senior center, in part because “the facility’s two entryways are confusing; exterior wayfinding signs and lighting are insufficient; and the Center’s existing paint color and design features including landscape tend to hide the facility from public view.” The federal government needs to fund a new paint color for a suburban city’s senior center, somehow, as if a city government doesn’t have tax authority and recurring revenue and can’t pay for paint.

Every member of Congress publishes lists like this, and you can find yours easily by googling the name of your representative with something like “community projects funded.” Hakeem Jeffries has funded, for example, “free dance education and training to children and youth from low-income communities in New York City,” and “kosher and halal food items for use at food pantries in New York’s Eighth Congressional District.” Becca Balint is using federal funds to buy new HVAC equipment for a hospital owned by a private corporation, and to build “30 units of energy-efficient housing.” Where do houses come from? The federal government.

Pork is bipartisan: Marjorie Taylor Greene is directing federal funding to an equestrian showplace:

Floyd County Agriculture Center and Equestrian Showplace

Recipient: Floyd County Georgia Board of Commissioners
Location: 12 East 4th Ave., Rome, GA 30161
Amount: $3,000,000
Justification: This funding would be used for construction of a multi-use agricultural center that supports education, community engagement, youth programs, and economic development through events, training, and regional partnerships. The project is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds because it invests in long-term community development, supports youth education and agriculture, boosts the local economy through tourism and events, and provides resources that benefit residents across multiple counties.

None of this would be flagged as wasteful, fraudulent, or abusive. It’s all above board, publicly disclosed — publicly bragged about — and approved by Congress. But none of it operates on an understanding of the limited function and enumerated powers of the federal government. Andrew Jackson vetoed a congressional allocation for the construction of a road, the Maysville Turnpike, because it started in Kentucky and ended in Kentucky. If it’s not an interstate project, Jackson argued, it’s not a matter for federal involvement:

I am not able to view it in any other light than as a measure of purely local character; or, if it can be considered national, that no further distinction between the appropriate duties of the General and State Governments need be attempted, for there can be no local interest that may not with equal propriety be denominated national.

The loss of those institutional boundaries turned the federal government into Santa Claus, and the resumption of an idea that the federal government has limited authority over those things that are plainly interstate would resolve a good part of the federal spending problem overnight. We don’t need Uncle Sugar to pay for new dining platforms for private corporations. Donald Trump needs a Maysville Road veto.