Defunding Legalization?
I wasn't going to mention this until I noticed the North Coast Journal also brought it up. I read about it just a few minutes earlier in a piece from the Cato Institute. The Cato article was mostly about hypocrisy regarding federalism and choice.
Part of the issue presented was the Republicans defunding efforts to legalize or decriminalize marijuana in Washington D.C. I was not too surprised to see the Journal bring up the same thing, if only because their writer's purpose seemed more about going after Republicans than anything else. From Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute:
"The rider would not just prevent the District government from using federal funds to support legalization, but would actually forbid D.C. officials from spending the District’s own tax money to implement the law."
I don't get it. Never mind questions of hypocrisy that Tanner points out. Why do you need money to "implement" legalizing something? About the only reason I can think of is you might need a few bucks to actually type up the law. Other than that little, if any, money is needed. Just stop arresting people!
I guess we've gotten to the point where even leaving people alone costs money?
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:21 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Wow! Some good points Fred. I think you are spot on with this one.
I've been thinking about this for a bit after I made the post. I think I figured out what defunding might be about:
It probably doesn't cost anything to legalize marijuana, but that won't stop some from making it seem like it will. What they're likely doing is punishing D.C. by withholding funding.
So, let's say congress funds D.C. to the tune of 10 million dollars per year- just by way of example. They'll say they won't fund the full 10 million because some of it might be used towards the end of legalizing mj. They'll only give 7 or 8 million suggesting that's enough to cover basic necessities without anything going towards legalization.
Their way of getting even and serving as warning for other places that may want to do the same. Just my guess.
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