Our View - Thursday

THE NEW GAME: FEAR-BASED PORK
Grants to gambling buses mock us all

   Fear not the terrorist, because the United States has a Department of Homeland Security. It's looking out for us all. This month the massive bureaucracy announced $844 million in spending for the latest "Infrastructure Protection Activities."

   With news like this, Osama bin Laden must feel helpless. He's probably hole up in a cave, meeting with advisors and junior terrorists about the obstacles presented by "Infrastructure Protection Activities." We can hear them now: "Just how does one destroy a casino bus that's equipped with GPS? Curses, foiled again by Infrastructure Protection Activities."

   Some of the Infrastructure Protection Activities money made its way right here to Colorado Springs, and into the pocket of the private owner of Ramblin Express, a casino bus service. To date, the for-profit business has received $382,000 in anti-terrorism grants. This year's $184,415 gift to Ramblin Express came from an $11.2 million pork fund called the Intercity Bus Security Grant Program - a division of Infrastructure Protection Activities - which sends gifts to scores of businesses like Ramblin Express.

   The money purportedly helps companies improve vehicle security. Ramblin Express owner Todd Holland, contacted by The Gazette, said he was too busy at the time to discuss how the money would make his company's drivers and passengers safe from bin Laden, al-Qaida and the like. It's hard to imagine how anyone could argue that $382,000 to a private shuttle business might have any effect on thwarting terrorism.

   The public has been told that some of the money will be used for GPS systems on buses. Now that's a great use of the taxpayers' hard-earned cash. After all, bin Laden might just decide to hijack a bus full of gamblers and drive them to God Only Knows Where, Utah. With GPS on board, federal authorities would be able to track the bus. Never mind that it's almost impossible to get lost in a big colorful bus that meanders through crowded city streets and up and down curvy mountain roads.

   Nobody is fooled: terror grants to private businesses are merely the latest craze in congressional pork. It's corporate welfare that redistributes paychecks from government-picked losers to government-picked winners.

   Members of the 9/11 Commission cautioned that homeland security would become a new mechanism for pork barrel spending, and they were absolutely right. Bin Laden should be delighted. Though he enjoyed seeing thousands of Americans die on Sept. 11, 2001, those acts of destruction were for him the equivalent of lighting a match. They were the beginning of something bigger, which would grow on its own.

   What any good terrorist really wants, after all, is for the masses to live in fear, imprisoning themselves with their own mostly futile security frenzy. Skilled terrorists know that humans don't live by statistics, which show they're far more likely to die from car trips, and other common activities, than from an attack. They know humans live more by emotion than reason, and therefore will twist themselves in knots and break the bank to avoid terror.

   If bin Laden knew about the money spent on gambling buses, he would certainly chuckle. He'd see that his plan had worked, and that Americans were wasting their money on nonproductive schemes, going forth without common sense, robbing Peter to pay Paul, allowing government to sell a false sense of security to the little people who pay the bills.

   It's bad enough that a few savages have managed to embroil this country in a war that has cost the lives of thousands of Americans and brought the nation's economy to its knees. It's a kick in the teeth when the actions of terrorists manifest in shenanigans such as terror grants for the few, at a cost to the many.

NOT BUNSPEAKABLE' AT ALL

   Advocates of county spending, including a municipal judge, say proposed county budget cuts are "unspeakable."

Actually, they're not.

El Paso County commissioners must decide how to respond to an $8.8 million deficit, caused by revenue shortfalls, inflated costs and a bad bet on the amount last year's debt refinancing would save. They expect to make decisions today.

   Municipal Judge Robert Briggle said one "unspeakable" idea involves elimination of a program that recommends whether suspects should be released from jail before trial. He and other judges threaten cutting back on personal recognizance bonds if the county eliminates this service. It's not "unspeakable" to suggest that judges make bail decisions without the luxury of a thirdparty organization to burden with the blame in the event something goes wrong. It's a traditional role of judges to make these decisions based on information brought to the court by prosecutors, defense lawyers, victims and defendants. A service that tells them what to do sounds like precisely the kind of fluff El Paso County should eliminate.

   Others find it unthinkable that county officials would lay off at least 320 employees, close two nature centers and eliminate subsidies for 4-H clubs.

   Unthinkable? On which planet? These are similar to actions private businesses and households routinely employ to address budget crises. Seldom can any entity, other than government, simply increase revenue to make ends meet. Cuts are the actions that shrink government - a highly speakable concept the local electorate has routinely embraced.

   Nothing could be more speakable or natural than scaling back during tough times. The county should not subsidize 4-H; parents should. It should not employ 320 more people than it can afford. It should not fund nature centers that could function as private enterprises, if they're of genuine value.

   Balancing a budget sometimes involves pain. Nothing the county has mentioned falls in the category of "unspeakable" at all. Unspeakable would be asking consumers - struggling with inflation and an economic ebb - for new taxes in advance of dramatic county budget cuts.