In old movies and TV shows, actors playing tough guys would ask…”What’s their game?”
James Cagney, maybe, asked about that. Or was it Humphrey Bogart? A bunch of actors, in The Sopranos TV series, probably asked that question, one way or another.
That’s an old — but also, perhaps, a timely question — that should be asked, not just once, but over-and-over again.
Local officials, out your way, for example, and local officials where my family and I reside, what’s their game? Those folks in government who decide how to spend our money – yours and ours. Our money that we pay in taxes. Public money, in other words. We, the public, provide it, hoping — hopefully — that our money will be spent prudently.
Your Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County officials, and state government officials in Denver… and our government officials where my family and I reside in California… What’s their game?
Are their decisions based on the will of the people? Or on something else, perhaps?
Are persuasive folks — lobbyists and others — whispering in politicians’ ears? Or, is it something else influencing spending decisions? Is it various circumstances, like those involving “property tax dollars” and “a detention center that would cost taxpayers more than $2.5 million per year,” what Bill Hudson mentioned last month, in his “EDITORIAL: County Commissioners Budgeting Zero Property Tax Dollars for Roads, Part Three”…
And, then, over the past four years, there’s perhaps the biggest game of all. Out in Washington DC, the game featuring the nation’s lame-duck President and his partisans, apparently, spending big money on such things as the southern border wall, on golf carts and staff accommodations at Trump resorts for golfing weekend getaways, on much legal folderol, and other things. Who knows if we’ll ever know if the money spent was public money? And if Trump administration initiatives funded with public money reflected the will of the people paying the bills?
So… that’s the question we may all need to think about. At the front — rather than at the back — of our mind. What’s their game?
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.