It's time to stop the anarchy. And Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) believes one way to do that is to threaten to withhold funds from any cities or states that continue to let rioters rule the streets.
The Ending Taxpayer Funding of Anarchy Act is pretty self-explanatory.
"For fiscal year 2021, and each fiscal year thereafter, a State or political subdivision of a State that is an anarchist jurisdiction at any time during a fiscal year may not receive Federal financial assistance from an executive agency during that fiscal year," the bill reads.
“Anarchy cannot continue on our streets," Sen. Ernst said in a statement on Thursday. "If city officials or state leaders fail to do their job and protect their citizens, the federal government – American taxpayers – aren’t going to pay for it. Local officials are letting chaos continue in their streets, and in some cases, preventing law enforcement from protecting the public. That’s not the America I know or fought for. This bill is straight forward and holds local leaders accountable to the people.”
Republican Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina introduced a similar bill on Monday, called the CHOPing Cash for CHAZ Act of 2020.
Seattle would likely be one of the first cities on the funding chopping block. For over a week now, protesters have siphoned off a few blocks in the city as their own and declared it the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ, now renamed CHOP, short for Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. Meaning, they've kicked police out of the area. While Mayor Jenny Durkan declared it would be a "summer of love," it didn't take long for CHOP to get violent. Last week, a shooting took place in the police-free zone and ended in one man's death and another wounded.
Townhall's Julio Rosas was on the ground in CHAZ/CHOP for several days. You can see his wild, shocking coverage here.