"President Bush and the Republicans "are playing a shell game with regard to homeland security" by giving states like New Jersey money for anti-terror initiatives while cutting other police funding programs, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) asserted yesterday.
They're going to show increases in homeland security expenditures," said Corzine of Bush and the Republican-majority Congress. "But they're cutting cops' programs."
The remarks by the state's senior senator come in the wake of assertions by Gov. James E. McGreevey that New Jersey needs more homeland security money. The governor, citing the 2001 anthrax mailings from New Jersey, was particularly upset that the state was initially slated to get just $36 million of $1.4 billion being targeted by the federal government to states to combat bioterrorism threats.
The federal government needs to worry about the federal government. Localities should be trying to take care of themselves, even if it means tough choices.
Bush could just as well say that states have to pay for these programs themselves. Why not? States have tax revenue. New Jersey like everyone else wants to keep their social spending high and depend on the federal government for homeland security. Homeland Security might be a good reminder to people that the government's #1 job is to protect it's citizens from foreign attack. That means that New Jersey should be spending the first of their money on counter-terrorism, and only after they have done that should they be funding other projects.
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