The story is becoming too familiar.

Lawmakers who support spending cuts, then call for their reversal. Lawmakers who want to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, just not in the program that is politically beneficial to them.

U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., joined several Senate colleagues in a letter seeking disbursement of already-approved Community Development Financial Institutions funds. To be fair, some federal actions seem designed to force elected officials to beg for the help they pledged to their constituents. In this case, $324 million from the fund was approved for more than 1,400 institutions in the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2025.

Twenty-six senators that include Justice and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer signed on to the letter. (Sens. Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno, both R-Ohio, are notably missing.) The signers say “Delay in the obligation of funds hinders critical projects in our states and could constrain the flow of capital to businesses and consumers who need it most.”

It is a case of the federal decision-making that was supposed to cut red tape and make the country a better steward of taxpayers’ money being called out as “red tape” by the politicians now feeling the sting.

The gamesmanship has got to end. If the federal government is simply amusing itself by finding out what it takes to make elected officials squawk on behalf of their constituents, we’ve had enough. And we’ve had enough of those elected officials who say they want to cut reckless spending, then ask for a little reckless spending to come their way so they can be the conquering heroes at home.

Because the reality likely is somewhere in the middle, all we voters and taxpayers can do is make this clear: No matter what government level you’re on, city, county, state or federal, we voted you into office and we expect you to ensure our money is being used responsibly to serve us rather than yourselves. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive.