THE CONSTITUTION AND STATES' RIGHTS
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
The 10th Amendment
The government is us; we are the government; you and I.
Teddy Roosevelt
A single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.
Louis D Brandeis
Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body. Independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution.
John Madison in Federalist 39
The Diagnosis:
The founders went out of their way in the constitution to protect states rights and limit the federal government. Even then the federal government was broken into 3 branches to provide checks and balances and to prevent abuses. The federal government was only assigned about 21 tasks, but of course that has expanded greatly and at this writing if the health care bill is rammed down our throats that will be another thing the constitution did not give to the "central government" but to the states.
Thomas Jefferson broke down the roles of the different levels of government(I paraphrase) :
Federal: defense of the nation and its foreign and federal relations;
States: civil rights, laws, police, and administration of what concerns the State generally
County: local concerns of the counties
Ward: direct the interests within itself
Individual: taking care of his own property.
Jefferson concludes: "What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body."
The Rx:
Reverse the trend. More power to the people. The current politicians, apparently, do not trust regular Americans to make their own decisions and feel we need help from the federal government, the ruling elite. How else do you explain the "nanny state" that is being thrust upon us. No, Americans from all over are standing up and saying enough is enough and demanding have their country back. This cannot be changed overnight but we can acknowledge that we are headed in the wrong direction and stop; then start the process of reversing direction.
Allow States to experiment. This is what the founders wanted to happen. Try new things on the state level, if they work then other states can adopt them. But if they don't work, like Massachusetts' health care bill, then the rest of the States do not have to try that. Of course, now the federal government is trying to pass a bill based on that failed plan. Sounds like the rest of the country is being put at risk. (See Brandeis quote above.) Does that make sense to anyone? No, we will be better off to let the states do some more experiments to find what works best. The way the founders intended.
Stop the blackmail. One thing the federal government has been very good at is, yes, blackmail. It has happened many times to Pennsylvania. One of the most egregious was the International Building Code (IBC) that was thrust on us several years ago by Washington through Governor Ridge. The federal government threatened to hold back the highway funds if we did not pass the IBC into law. That's blackmail. I am not against building codes but this one is so restrictive that construction has all but stopped. To follow the IBC, the cost of the projects are sometimes doubled and therefore, often the decision is made to not proceed. It was reported recently that new housing starts were at an all time low. Many may blame this on the economy but people are out there wanting to build but it is the cost of compliance with the code that deters. Yes, we need common sense regulation that is imposed by the local communities, not heavy handed regulation from the federal government. Education is another area where Washington is over stepping its bounds to impose its will on -we the people(see Education section) This practice of holding money, due the states, until "they" get their way is unconstitutional and needs to stop.
