HB 590 passed the House 228 – 111; it calls for a committee to review state participation in federal grant-in-aid programs. Considering that over 50% of the State budget and laws associated with that spending is controlled by the Federal government; this is a prudent first step to shine some light on an area of financial Sovereignty for the State.

In a recent town hall meeting a lady was explaining to me that if we as a State simply participated in more Federal programs we would get more Federal money and be like those States who get back 2 and 3 dollars for every dollar we sent to Washington D.C. instead of the 85 cents on the dollar that we get back now.

Unfortunately a portion of those Federal programs must be paid for by the State budget, and in the process we must make State laws that comply with the requirements to participate in those programs; the Federal government can change the rules any time they like and we are forced to comply or leave the program. The Federal government has been known on occasions to create programs that get the people hooked on a social service just to remove Federal funding later and leave the State holding the bag or explaining to the citizens why we have to cut the program; in other cases they leverage existing grants to demand we participate in unrelated programs and spend our own money doing so.

While the State budget his hemorrhaging, and taxes are at the breaking point one only has to step back and look at the big picture to see what is happening. The Federal government takes nearly twice as much in taxes under the 16th amendment from the citizens of New Hampshire as the State; every Federal incentive is for the State to spend more money to qualify for more grants, and thus become more dependent on Federal control and write more State laws to satisfy Federal demands.

Because the immense tax burden of our Federal 16th amendment taxes; the States cannot raise taxes any more, the people will not tolerate it. Therefore, the Federal government has created a glass ceiling for State revenue while they enjoy the luxury of printing an endless supply of money for themselves waiting for the States to break. As pointed out by Daniel Webster “An unlimited power to tax includes, necessarily, the power to destroy.” And that is what we are witnessing today.

Now there is talk of States that need to go bankrupt; and the Federal government bailing them out just like they did General Motors as pointed out in this article from the New York Times; this is a direct financial assault on the Sovereignty of the States, as the States cannot declare bankruptcy because they are sovereign; but hey, our buddy the Federal government is looking into ways to fix that problem. Perhaps they will fire our Governor like the did the GM CEO, and replace our Legislative branch with the Presidents buddies.

Is it intentional or accidental? This does not matter; the effect is the same. This is why in the founding of our country the Federal government was not given the power to tax the citizens of the States; they knew better, and this is why we must call for the repeal of the 16th amendment along with a transfer of control of all Federal domestic programs to the States. Grandma doesn’t have to eat dog food, and the people dependent on social services continue to receive benefits but now we cut out the middle man and regain control of our own Sovereignty and the Federal government gets back to its real job – Foreign affairs.

A recent article in the Concord monitor talks about this issue on the surface; failing to cover the big picture for people who don’t understand what is going on, drop them a comment if so inclined.

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