Maybe this sums up the RW view of things somewhat;

[The Straight Story]

We Have Met the Government, and It is Us In a piece on the Wall Street Journal's editorial page today, Jonathan Gurwitz, a columnist at the San Antonio Express-News, details the effort to set up Fisher Houses, which serve as homes away from home for the families of wounded military service members. The houses, he reports, are the result of an "innovative partnership between government and private philanthropy." The philanthropy is courtesy of New York developer Zachary Fisher. Private funds are raised to build the houses. The military provides land for construction, and takes over operations and maintenance after they're built.

That's a highly laudable endeavor, but for me the piece was slightly marred by a quote from Arnold Fisher, Zachary Fisher's nephew, who is heavily involved in the project. "We don't want government money," he says. "This is Americans doing for Americans."

But land and operations and maintenance aren't free, are they? The Fisher Houses seem like a highly laudable project--and one that it appears couldn't be pulled off without Uncle Sam's help. That's great. And since the government money that is dedicated to this effort presumably comes from our tax dollars, it constitutes "Americans doing for Americans," too.

http://www.govexec.com/fedblog/#1730

[pooja]

1. I would say that gov't money is American's money...

The difference is that with private donations, we get to choose where our money goes, unlike the gov't.

[China_cat]

2. Maybe they'd like to do something about

the empty military housing here in Charleston. Hundreds (if not a thousand or more) units that were left empty when the Navy base here closed are still sitting empty and rotting. They were originally promised as a low-rent housing community...there's even a school building, playgrounds and other facilities going unused...but nothing has been done to actually help the poor/homeless get into them.

I'd give them props for turning them over to military families who need them. A few more years the way they're going and they'll be totally useless to anyone.