US Mayors are off base

At a recent event co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Architectural Foundation, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, there were complaints by some of the city leaders that Washington wasn't doing enough for their little corners of the Earth. "Mayors could never get away with the kind of nonsense that goes on in Washington," Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said. "In our world, you either picked up the trash or you didn’t. You either moved an abandoned car or you didn’t. You either filled a pothole or you didn’t. That’s what we do every day. And we know how to get this stuff done.”

Well, Mr. Nutter, if you're getting that done, if you're doing your job, then why harp at Washington? Because, they assert, they need Washington cash to get things done. But it's the mayors, Manny Diaz, former mayor of Miami said, who create jobs. But the mayors aren't getting the federal support they need.

Hmmm....you are the guys who get the job done, who create jobs. Yet you also seem to say that you can't get things done without Washington money. If that's the case then, dare we ask, how is it you get the job done in the first place? How is it that you, in your vaunted positions as mayors of whatever cities, get things done?

You speak with forked tongue, mayors of America. You assert that it's all on you, and that you get necessary things done, yet insist on the federal government financing you. When you talk out of both sides of your mouth, can you really blame the taxpayers, or even the lawmakers inside the Beltway, when they look at you with a healthy skepticism? It seems to us that you can't have it both ways: you cannot be doing you jobs well and need federal money to them well too, if you've been doing them well to begin with.