A Taxpayer's Lessons in Getting Basic DC Services and a Welfare Benefit Too
Tired of paying a dollar figure in DC taxes that is a high multiple of the services I receive in return, I have dedicated myself to finding out how to make this socialist welfare state pay me back a little. I would prefer to reduce all taxes and services, but that is impossible. So the only thing I can do to make myself less resentful of my neighbors who somehow have me paying to support their "learning disabled" but otherwise completely normal children in a $75,000 per year school is to see if there is anything at all beyond trash collection that I can get from this government. The DC web site, I have discovered, is very helpful in this pursuit.
It has a feature that is called "Request a Service." My first service request was to get sidewalks on my street. How a street in DC has no sidewalks, even as the city politicians bemoan the state of pedestrian safety, is beyond me. My second service request was for trees to be planted in front of my house. You can actually do this, and it seems that if you don't request them, they won't plant them. They will remove them, as they did the tree in front of my house two years ago, but to get a new one you have to request a service. I am catching on. DC tree planting is so poor that the Casey Trees Endowment Fund has had to step in.
Trees and sidewalks are basic government functions and not welfare benefits. But how can a person who pays excessive taxes get a welfare benefit? I found the answer! Prominently featured on the DC web site is the DC Rx Prescription Drug Discount Card, which gives residents, regardless of income, a discount of up to 20% on prescription drugs. I have my own company and pay for my own health insurance but I don't have drug coverage, so I qualify. My card is in the mail, assuming that someone in DC government remembers to send it. The site does not say who pays for this benefit, but I assume it is DC taxpayers and that David Catania, the biggest disappointment on the Council, sponsored this law. My favorite feature of this welfare program is that it also pays for your pet's medications.
It has a feature that is called "Request a Service." My first service request was to get sidewalks on my street. How a street in DC has no sidewalks, even as the city politicians bemoan the state of pedestrian safety, is beyond me. My second service request was for trees to be planted in front of my house. You can actually do this, and it seems that if you don't request them, they won't plant them. They will remove them, as they did the tree in front of my house two years ago, but to get a new one you have to request a service. I am catching on. DC tree planting is so poor that the Casey Trees Endowment Fund has had to step in.
Trees and sidewalks are basic government functions and not welfare benefits. But how can a person who pays excessive taxes get a welfare benefit? I found the answer! Prominently featured on the DC web site is the DC Rx Prescription Drug Discount Card, which gives residents, regardless of income, a discount of up to 20% on prescription drugs. I have my own company and pay for my own health insurance but I don't have drug coverage, so I qualify. My card is in the mail, assuming that someone in DC government remembers to send it. The site does not say who pays for this benefit, but I assume it is DC taxpayers and that David Catania, the biggest disappointment on the Council, sponsored this law. My favorite feature of this welfare program is that it also pays for your pet's medications.
posted by Leonardo at 8:48 PM
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