Cash-hungry mayors glad to have Rahm Emanuel in their ranks

[mucifer]

Lynn sweet blogs.suntimes.com/sweet June 18, 2011 11:42PM


BALTIMORE — Mayor Rahm Emanuel was warmly embraced at his U.S. Conference of Mayors debut here, partly because of his celebrity, but more important to cash-starved mayors, Emanuel is seen as key to getting Washington to ship more money to cities.

Joining other mayors at the Friday press conference opening the 79th annual meeting of the group, Emanuel got a shout out from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the incoming president of the group.

“He’s got a key to the front door and a key to the back door of the White House,” Villaraigosa recounted for me when we talked on Saturday. “And then said something like, ‘Well, I’m going to hold on to those keys’ and I said, ‘Hold on to those keys, just let the rest of us in.’ ”

The mayors are excited about the entree Emanuel brings to the White House — he was, of course, President Barack Obama’s chief of staff — and to Congress, where he was a leader when he was a House member. They hope the access — and Emanuel’s drive to find more federal dollars for Chicago — will benefit all cities, under a rising-tide-ifts-all-boats theory.
more at: http://www.suntimes.com/news/6036786-452/cash-hungry-mayors-glad-to-have-rahm-emanuel-in-their-ranks.html

[Warpy]

1. Then he'd better spit out all that DLC/Third Way Koolaid

and get behind socking it to the rich and cutting back the military budget.

Those are the only things that will get this country's financial house in order. Everything else starts with those two things.

[dkf]

2. I've never understood why the people get taxed by the Feds so they can send the funds to

The states or municipalities. Why can't the locals fund their own priorities? What is the purpose of local control again? Is this so we can pin all the blame for deficits/taxes on the Feds and thank the locals for getting the job done? Accountability for taxing and spending seems avoided here.

[Warpy]

3. It's because the states, especially conservative southern states,

refused to levy taxes to come up to Federal standards for things like education and public assistance.

That's why.