End Run: U.S. Cities Accept Funds From World Bank For Sustainable Development

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, then a Government having access to unlimited funds, as the Obama Administration has demonstrated for the past four years, can be a very dangerous concept.

Governments that have only limited funds which are derived exclusively from taxpayers ensures that elected Representatives are not only accountable solely to the people, but forces them to prioritize Government programs and fund only those which are supported by the populace. This is an important part of the checks and balances in a Republic because when Government Officials gain access to funds from a source other than the taxpayer, and without the taxpayer’s consent, then the loyalties of those Officials change and the will of the people can easily be ignored.

Certain U.S. cities are currently in the process of bypassing, or doing an end run, around that particular part of the checks and balances system by accepting money from the World Bank in order to fund sustainable development projects through an organization called C40 Cities.

In this “About Us” Video from C40 Cities, former President Bill Clinton, whose own organization, Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), is teamed up with C40, emphasizes that funding from the World Bank allows American cities to fund projects that would normally be too expensive utilizing tax payer funds alone:

We are putting our resources to work in the C40 under Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership, and the partnership with the World Bank, giving us a chance to actually finance things that by any rational analysis have always been good economics, but have never had a system to support them.

Since 2010, C40 Cities has been led by New York City Mayor, Micheal Bloomberg, and according to the C40 Cities website they are:

a network of the world’s megacities taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With a unique set of assets, the C40 works with participating cities to address climate risks and impacts locally and globally.

Mayor Bloomberg explained in an interview in 2011, that while Countries are dragging their feet on passing laws that will combat Climate Change, Mayors like himself are not waiting around and instead are taking action. But in order to take that action cities are utilizing funds from the World Bank through C40:

11 cities in the United States participate in the C40 program:

• Austin, Texas
• Houston, Texas
• Chicago, Illinois
• Los Angeles, California
• San Franciso, California
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• New York, New York
• Portland, Oregon
• Seattle, Washington
• Washington D.C.

The fact that so many U.S. cities are funding sustainable development programs utilizing funds from the World Bank begs the question.

Can you label these sustainable development projects as an example of a bottom up Democratic Republic were the people have  asked for these projects and have approved funds for them; or an example of an elitist top-down Aristocracy were the City Administrators, teamed up with the World Bank, have decided to push their own agenda without caring if the city residents want these projects?

The answer to this question is obvious.  If City Administrators thought they could garner enough support for these sustainability projects they would have placed them on  a ballot asking for tax increases or found ways to cut pork out of their current budgets in order to fund them.   But instead of utilizing the system properly they decided to do an end run around the people by accepting  funding from the World Bank, through C40, in order to fund their own agenda.

If this behavior continues and spreads to other U.S. cities, there may come a time when the power of the people will mean nothing and the Aristocracy of the world will freely “fund” the forced  transformation of American cities into a sustainable hell, if the American citizens want it…. or not.