Wildwood, Missouri, may have to cut police officers because it can't afford them, while St. Paul, Minnesota, bleeds taxpayer dollars on a $500-an-hour legal war between the mayor and her own police chief. This is the bipartisan failure in miniature: Washington ships billions overseas and into green slush funds, and Main Street can't keep a patrol car on the road.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Wildwood is weighing officer reductions as police costs keep climbing. The city simply doesn't have the revenue to sustain its force at current levels. Meanwhile, 500 miles north, St. Paul taxpayers are footing the bill for a different kind of public-safety crisis — one generated entirely by City Hall itself.

St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry filed suit against Mayor Kaohly Her in September, alleging sexual harassment, whistleblower retaliation, and violations of state data-practices law. An outside firm, Resolute Law, already produced a 76-page report finding the mayor's behavior "inappropriate" but not rising to sexual harassment. The investigation has cost more than $43,000 so far, according to the Pioneer Press. Now the City Council has authorized hiring the firm Fisher Phillips at $500 per hour to defend the city. St. Paul is self-insured, meaning every dime comes out of the general fund — the same fund that nearly couldn't spare a city library and multiple recreation centers this budget cycle.

The Resolute Law report concluded the relationship between the mayor and chief is likely beyond repair: "The interactions between Mayor Her and (the chief) have been limited, but strained. Each side has accused the other of retaliation." The temporary fix of routing communication through an intermediary "is not a sustainable solution."

Employment attorney Marshall Tanick told the Pioneer Press he expects a sizable settlement before year's end: "This case is very likely to be settled for a sizable amount, relatively soon. There is strong evidence supporting the chief's claim, and the publicity and political considerations and public outrage are compelling factors." Henry's lawsuit seeks damages upward of $50,000 plus attorney's fees. Invariably, Tanick noted, the employee leaves as part of the deal.

So St. Paul taxpayers will likely pay six figures to make a harassment and retaliation suit disappear — money that won't fund a single officer, fix a single road, or keep a single rec center open. And in Wildwood, there simply isn't money to keep the officers they have.

Congress just approved another round of foreign aid and green-energy subsidies running into the tens of billions. Nobody at the federal level is asking whether Wildwood can field a police department or whether St. Paul can keep its libraries open without raising taxes. The money flows one way — from your paycheck, through the Potomac, to everyone except you.

The open question: How many towns have to lose their police before Washington notices it's funding everything except the basic functions government actually exists to provide?