by Paul Jacob

I, for one, like beauty. So this headline caught my eye: "Spending Cap May Block Beauty." The subhead went on to inform that: "Improving City’s Blank Canvas Could Require Art of Politics."

Is it just me? Somehow I’ve never thought of politics as art.

And you're probably wondering: What city? What city can we pretty much consider a "blank canvas" devoid of any beauty?

Well, the city is our nation's capitol: Washington, D.C. Yes, somehow when it comes to any cap on government spending, even a city with the White House, the Capitol, memorials and monuments, can be considered a "blank canvas" desperately in need of a taxpayer-funded transfusion of beauty.

Simple story: Washington DC government is spending $611 million on a stadium for the city’s new privately-owned baseball team, the Nationals. That is the absolute limit the City Council is willing to spend in public funds. Fiscal tough-guys: $611 million and not a penny more.

Which means the stadium beautification planned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities -- at the additional cost of $2 million -- cannot be done. DC residents will be stuck with a $611 million stadium that Washington Post reporter David Nakamura calls "a cold slab of concrete and glass."

I know the feeling. Why just the other day, I found I could afford the plain version of an item, without any beauty added. But for an extra $2 million, I could get it absolutely teeming with beauty.

It wasn't fair. I didn't have the $2 million.

Paul Jacob's "Common Sense" is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org.