roundtable: Re: Local vs. Federal

roundtable: Re: Local vs. Federal

Re: Local vs. Federal

Richard K. Moore (rkmoore@iol.ie)
Fri, 17 Mar 1995 11:15:24 +0000 

Message-Id: <v02110107ab8effb480b0@[193.120.234.107]>
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 11:15:24 +0000
To: roundtable@cni.org
From: rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore)
Subject: Re: Local vs. Federal


At 3:42 PM 3/16/95, W. Curtiss Priest wrote:
>
>Could they have meant the state of Massachusetts,
>where the rush to privatize mental health services result-
>ed in too few beds for severely ill patients? This is, after
>all, the state run by William Weld, who told a congres-
>sional panel that the poor in Massachusetts could handle
>the GOP "Contract with America," which, some say,
>would cost the state $2.6 billion in federal grants over
>seven years.


"Local autonomy" is one of those double-edged swords isn't it?  
Ultimately, local/regional autonomy seems to promise the greatest 
democracy and self-sufficiency.  But when power and money is 
centralized at the Federal level, then localism becomes a sham -- a 
way to defund public programs, diffuse the public constituency, and 
force worthwhile projects to fight each other for crumbs.

-rkm

Richard K. Moore
<rkmoore@iol.ie>

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