Washington Monument Syndrome
|
Washington Monument Syndrome is the propensity of state entities, when under budgetary stress, to shut down their most publicly visible and/or essential functions first, with the intention of coercing a return to full funding.
Sometimes, such as with the WWII memorial in DC, the government entity may in fact spend money it wasn't previously spending to shut down things that logically should remain open even if the entity was 100% defunded.
This needs to be made a suicidally dangerous tactic rather than a best practice sure-to-work tactic.
For a polar situation, visualize where as a result of a cut of X% or non-increase the agency or department in question basically shuts down everything the public needs from them saying they don't have enough money. The response should be obvious to everyone here: move to eliminate the entire government entity that needs so much money to do nothing at all and can't do anything without more than that.
Objective: create a ready-made plans for when this sort of things come up to replace the proven to be useless government entity so it can be sprung on them at a city council, county commissioner, US Congressional, et c meeting or session without them finding out in advance.