Recent columns Republicans have always insisted that size matters. When it comes to governments, smaller is better. Washington is evil, out of touch and a wastrel to boot, a drunken, debauched uncle with a bottomless trust fund.
States are better but the wisest, best government is local.
That is, local government is best unless local government is up to something a GOP Congress doesn't like. So Congress loaded its annual budget bill for Washington D. C. this year with overrides. District residents voted overwhelmingly in a referendum last year to legalize medicinal marijuana, and the district has wanted to follow the successful example of six other cities, which have found that clean-needle exchanges for drug users cut the spread of HIV and AIDS without increasing drug use. The budget bill forbids the city to carry out either act. So it turns out local government knows best only if Congress doesn't know better.