Editorial: Where’s Our Billion?
By • September 10, 2025 0 169
Where’s our billion dollars? We’re not talking about Powerball. We’re talking about a Congressional power play that stripped $1 billion from the D.C. budget.
The president and the Senate approved the reinstatement — but not the House. That money, which could be used to hire new police officers to reduce crime (among other things), belongs to District of Columbia taxpayers.
We know a lot has happened since that fiscal snatch, what with the federal surge, the police takeover and the over 2,000 arrests in the last 30 days. National Guard troops appeared on our streets in the wrong places and the wrong assignments. Quite unsettling, to say the least.
We have protesters shouting: “End the occupation of D.C. now!”
Mayor Bowser’s strategic response to Trump’s willfulness has led to a good result: the orderly end of the so-called emergency on Sept. 10. Does it look like an emergency out there? Strong-arm-style arrests by DEA and ICE have left neighborhoods scared.
Somehow, the president, pleased for the moment, is calling the nation’s capital nearly 100-percent crime-free. On Sunday, he even told a reporter to go out to dinner in D.C. … on him. However, the reality of the situation is dire. It’s bad for restaurants and retail all around.
We’ve endured tough civic lessons over the last few months, along with countless absurdities and back-and-forths. Ominously, a few Republicans in Congress are talking about revising D.C. laws.
Let’s emulate the mayor’s grit as far as “keeping it real” and “keeping it together.” Democracy will endure, but “the situation” continues. And, yes, we still want our money back.
