Photo by Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie.

I’m not one for hyperbole, but here goes — the Republican plan to cut billions of dollars in spending, including $210 million for the District, could well sink the city into a financial mess that it couldn’t quickly emerge from.

Here’s why. As a whole, the District just doesn’t make much sense. The majority of the city’s land is untaxable, as is all of the money that’s made here by non-residents. All told, various reports have estimated that this situation — known as the District’s “structural deficit” — rises above and beyond $1 billion in lost revenue per year.

Up until 1997, the federal government would pay the District a yearly sum — the infamous federal payment. But since then, Congress has only allocated enough money to run certain agencies and functions that would usually be covered by a state, like the court system, the prisons and Medicaid payments. (A budget document linked to by the City Paper’s Loose Lips pegs 2010 spending on courts alone at $248 million.) Along with having to cover the costs of the structural deficit, the District has also been saddled with the responsibility of doubling as the nation’s capital, which involves stuff as minor, yet costly, as dedicating D.C. police officers to escorting motorcades around town. From 2000 to 2005, those costs came to about $10 million.

Seen in this light, the District’s fiscal performance in recent years is pretty good. It’s actually damn near miraculous that so many years could pass with balanced budgets and a growing rainy day fund.

But with the city facing an estimated $500 million budget deficit in FY 2012 after already having had to navigate a $188 million budget deficit this year, well, the picture gets much bleaker. If Congress cut that $210 million to the District — a big if, but worth considering no less — the District would have to deal with impossible demands and untenable decisions. Do the courts get funding at the expense of schools? Do programs to serve the homeless get cut just so we can maintain our police force? And even when all the cuts are made, how high would taxes have to get to even approach a balanced budget? It’s so impossible that it’s comical.