The Tenther Grapevine
From the Wall Street Journal:
A central feature of the Baucus bill is the vast expansion of state Medicaid programs. This is necessary, we are told, to cover more of the nation’s uninsured. The provision has angered governors, since the federal government will cover only part of the expansion and stick fiscally strapped states with an additional $37 billion in costs.
Could someone show me the clause in the Constitution that includes unfunded mandates as part of Congress’ enumerated powers?
The day after Obama rams this debacle of a plan through Congress, every statehouse in the country should be packed with citizens demanding to know how their state and local legislators intend to stop the federal government from robbing state and local taxpayers blind.
Medicaid is already an enormous drain on state balance sheets. Coupled with ridiculously generous public sector benefits and pension plans, those costs account for more than the entire budget shortfall in many states.
To sit idly by while the federal government drops yet another unsustainable fiscal burden in the laps of the sovereign states is not an option. Neither is hoping for a better Congress in 2010. The national Republicans will never be a viable alternative until they begin advocating for true federalism.
We need a return to the federalism of our founding and we need it yesterday.
Josh Eboch [send him email] is a research analyst for the Tenth Amendment Center. His articles have appeared in various publications, and he writes regularly for the Center on issues related to state sovereignty and nullification.
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"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."
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Unfunded mandates are a huge problem with our unlimited national government. If you believe in the following, I hope you will consider joining us at Take the State to help restore federalism.
1. States are the bulwark of freedom.
2. The federal government has exceeded its legitimate Constitutional authority and has transformed from a limited to an unlimited government.
3. The states and people must do everything within the limits of the law and our Constitution to restrain the power of the federal government.
4. We must elect leaders for state offices who pledge to support the legitimate rights of the states and people as outlined in the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.
5. States must reject federal government mandates and grants-in-aid which are instruments to coerce and blackmail the states to give up their rights.
6. The 17th Amendment to the Constitution allowing for the direct election of Senators must be repealed and the authority to select Senators be returned to state legislatures.
7. The 16th Amendment to the Constitution allowing for the income tax must be repealed in order to shrink the size and scope of the federal government.
8. The Constitution must be amended to reassert the states' rights over education. The federal government has no legitimate role in education.
9. National Guard units must be restored to their proper role of defending the individual states and the United States rather than being used to augment active duty military units. Furthermore, these units must be under the authority of state governors and not the federal government.
http://takethestate.ning.com
We have been promoting the work of the Tenth Amendment Center on our site and hope we can cooperate to restore federalism and turn back our overbearing national government.
Terry Kinder
Take the State
http://takethestate.ning.com
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