Nation’s capital fails Snowmanship 101, again!

Many, perhaps most, Americans look to Washington, D.C., for leadership. And for that we thank you. We can use the work and, all too often, — channeling Rodney Dangerfield — we don’t get no respect!

War, peace, climate change, epidemics, those we can handle. More or less. But snow, not so much! Take yesterday. Please.

It snowed Tuesday. First one of the year for us. Inside the Beltway, we got just over an inch. Outside maybe 3+ inches. That may be April weather in Providence or Minot. But here in hilly river city, any snow is often too much.

The government wisely adopted a very flexible policy. Nonemergency types could come in late, and/or work from home. Some agencies outside the Beltway issued special orders to their troops. From a government- as-an-employer standpoint, this was one of our better snow emergencies. Maybe the best run yet!

Local governments, unfortunately, didn’t do so well. For many people, it was a tale of two counties. Fairfax in Virginia and Montgomery in Maryland are almost twins in size and income. While both have pockets of poverty, they are also among the richest counties in the nation with some of the top-earning Zip codes.

Most of the Maryland counties first granted a 2-hour delayed arrival, then canceled school for the day. A smart (safe) move, although it left many working parents in the lurch.

In Fairfax, however, the school system opted to open on time. Traffic and weather conditions were terrible. Buses became stuck (roads weren’t prepared). Some off-loaded their passengers so that some buses were chockfull of little kids, three to a seat. WTTG Channel 5 reported that a Canadian-born driver came to the rescue of a busload of kids, whose driver was from Morocco. And so it went.

One problem many people don’t understand is getting teachers to schools during bad weather. In Montgomery and Fairfax, many teachers don’t live anywhere near the schools where they work. They can’t afford it. Some commute from southside Virginia, western Maryland and even West Virginia. A lot of them didn’t make it in yesterday. In hindsight, keeping the schools open was a bad call. Result: Maryland 1, Virginia 0.

Each time we have a snow or ice storm and what happened yesterday happens, we say never again. We’ll do a lot better next time. Until the next time gets here. Maybe it was meant to be.

The Incredible Shrinking IRS

Congress has the Internal Revenue Service on a very low-calorie diet. Layoffs are possible at a time when Uncle Sam needs all the revenue he can get, and the IRS has added duties because of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). So what’s next, back to private debt collectors?

At 10 a.m. today on our Your Turn radio show we’ll talk with Colleen Kelley. She’s president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which has been watching — and protesting — the IRS cuts for a long time. So what’s her take? Listen if you can on www.federalnewsradio.com or in D.C. at 1500 AM. You can call in during the show if you have questions, at (202) 465-3080, or send them to me before show time at: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com.

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID:

Compiled by Michael O’Connell

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield was born Jacob Rodney Cohen on Nov. 22, 1921, and adopted the stage name “Jack Roy” when he first started performing at the age of 20.

Source: Wikipedia

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