Berkeley’s socialist city council is starting to feel the pain now.
After passing a resolution last week to tell the Marines to leave the city, the council is getting a dose of its own medicine.
On Wednesday, a group of congressmen introduced several bills in the Senate and the House, known collectively as the Semper Fi Act of 2008. If approved, the measures would strip $2.3 million in federal earmarks for Berkeley from the Omnibus Appropriations bill and give the money to the Marine Corps.
The programs that would lose money include school lunches, Bay ferry service, disability organizations, UC Berkeley’s Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service, and a new public safety communications system.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said, “Berkeley needs to learn that their actions have consequences. Patriotic American taxpayers won’t sit quietly while Berkeley insults our brave Marines and tries to run them out of town. Berkeley City Council members have shown complete ingratitude to our military and their families, and the city doesn’t deserve a single dime of special pet project handouts.”
Meanwhile, Berkeley’s Mayor Tom Bates has finally issued a half-hearted apology for last week’s ordinance calling the Marines “uninvited intruders,” while begging to keep the city’s pork barrel projects. “There’s really no correlation between federal funds for schools, water ferries and police communications systems and the council’s actions, for God’s sake,” said Bates, a retired U.S. Army captain. (Can we get a refund for this joker’s training? How about a buck for every time he takes the Lord’s name in vain?) “We apologize for any offense to any families of anyone who may serve in Iraq. We want them to come home and be safe at home.” (So long as it means we get to keep our taxpayer goodies.)
The liberals in Berkeley and their supporters in Congress are trying to plead that the programs that will suffer have nothing to do with the city, and punishing them will only hurt children and disabled people.
But there’s no law that says these programs are entitled to federal funding. If they’re important to the city, let the city fund them. Or are Berkeley mothers too liberated to make Little Johnny a sandwich before school?
If the People’s Republic of Berkeley wants to boot the Marines out of town, then we should boot Berkeley off the federal gravy train.
The aging Marxists of Berkeley should not be allowed to enjoy the benefits of being an American city while behaving in the most anti-American manner.
With a presidential election this year, Congress needs to take up the Semper Fi Act quickly and let the country see if any of the leading candidates dare to side with Berkeley against the Marines.
Particularly for the Democrats, who are pinning their election hopes on promises of a precipitous Iraq pullout while claiming to support the troops, this issue may prove most problematic.
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