Federal spending sleight of hand

Sometimes the silly arguments between political campaigns can actually bring forth an interesting point.  Today is one of those days.

I was reading an article on Yahoo (“Romney calls suggestions he wants to cut teachers, firefighters ‘completely absurd’“) today, and it contained the following lines:

“That’s a very strange accusation. Of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states,” Romney said. “The federal government doesn’t pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen. So obviously that’s completely absurd.”

But Romney’s assertions weren’t exactly right. While the federal government does not specifically hire firefighters, police officers and teachers, their salaries in many jurisdictions are paid largely through federal aid from Washington.

Federal aid pays a large portion for service sector personnel on the local level.  Why is this?

The Federal government already places a large burden on the States in the form of programs such as Medicaid; taking away resources the States could be using on their own expenses.  Why don’t we simplify the accounting process and move Medicaid completely under the Federal level (where it should be since it is a Federal program) and allow the States to redirect those funds towards their own service sector?

It’s common sense.