Some comments on my post regarding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday got me thinking about the responsibility any organization takes on once it accepts public dollars.  As I understand it, one of the real reasons people were upset about him speaking at Columbia University was that they also denied the Minutemen a forum a while back, and that they also don't allow the ROTC to come onto campus as required by Federal Law if they accept federal funds (the Solomon Amendment).  As a Libertarian in good standing, this raises some major questions for me.  Primarily, is it valid for the government to carrot and stick any institution to do anything by withholding tax dollars that they might normally give.  In other words, is government blackmail legitimate?

My gut reaction is to say no, and that the Solomon Amendment, and any laws similar to it are pure bullshit.  Taxes are taken from the people by force at the point of a gun.  To then suggest that we'll give you your money back to you, only under certain conditions, is extortion.  If a private citizen were to do this, we'd throw them in jail.  This is nothing new for the federal government of course.  The 55 mile per hour speed limit and the 21 year old drinking age come from the exact same thinking.  The federal government collects enormous amounts of taxes and essentially weakens the ability of the individual states to tax.  But the feds will give the states some of that money back for thinks like highways if they pass certain laws.  How is that not blackmail?

Many would argue of course that colleges don't have to accept federal dollars, and are free to do as they please.  While technically true, the fact that they don't accept federal dollars puts them at a competitive disadvantage to other schools.  Moreover, that disadvantage is created using tax dollars that are still collected from it's students and their parents.  Imagine if in a few years, the Social Security checks were withheld from retirees who refused to perform at least 10 hours of community service per week.  That shouldn't be a problem right?  After all, community service is a laudable goal, and those retirees don't have to accept Social Security right?  Never mind that their money was still withheld from their check every month.

This is not a Republican issue and it's not a Democratic issue, since tax dollars can be used to either promote or stunt goals that both sides hold dear.  If government steals your money, doesn't have a duty to distribute that money fairly without provisos, or not take the money at all?  And why does any institution that accepts federal dollars have a responsibility to do anything, when that money was essentially stolen from them in the first place?

Discuss.