Outside of the Obama echo chamber in Washington (and the bigger one in the media) there are other things happening. For example, a number of states are looking at the pile of money Washington is pushing at them and finding that the strings attached are not a good thing. CNN blames it all on Republicans, but this is a real problem. Washington is pushing itself into the business of the states. It is time for the states to push back. Some are.
From Montana to South Carolina, lawmakers in mostly red states have pushed ahead with measures calling for state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment, saying the federal government has overstepped its bounds with the stimulus package. The states are calling for the right to ignore laws they deem unconstitutional.
Oklahoma state Sen. Randy Brogdon, a Republican and the first to introduce this type of legislation last year, originally pursued it because he thought then-President Bush and Congress exceeded their authority with the Real ID Act, which required states to include certain information on driver’s licenses.
He called the stimulus package “immoral and unconscionable” and said it was “the final straw that broke the financial back of America.”
Brogdon’s bill passed the state Senate on Wednesday and the state House approved a similar measure. The office of lead House sponsor Republican Rep. Charles Key said it is confident a joint resolution will get through.
The legislation would be binding. So, if the governor signs it, it theoreticallly(sic) would allow Oklahoma to ignore laws that are not “enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution,” as stated in the Tenth Amendment.
Could it be that the red states are not quite so in love with big government?
Well, duh.
The states that are pushing back here are in the right, not of the right. The latest spending spree by Washington Democrats usurps the powers reserved for the states by the constitution. Pushing back is what is needed. Too bad some states (by inference from the story, mostly blue ones) are more in love with the money than they are in resisting the surrender of their rights.
Obviously, the economy is not the best. However, it has been worse in the past. It has always recovered. So why the rush to surrender sovereignty in the name of a short-term money fix? Put it down to greed or stupidity.
Please keep us posted on this topic! I hadn’t seen the article about Oklahoma. Thanks!
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.” –Rahm Emanuel
I remember economies worse than this one, but the whole point of the administration’s efforts are less about ending a recession and more about transforming the US into a Euro-style social-democratic state, with everyone heavily dependent on the central government. The strings attached to the stimulus money are meant similarly to make dependents out of the state governments, turning them into agencies of the Fed.
It’s a full-blown assault on what’s left of the federalist system. Tenth amendment cases rarely make it to the Supreme Court; it will be interesting to see if more do, now.