States.
There, I said it.
Our country is a loose federation of states, all of which are intended to handle matters not specifically allocated to the federal government in the Constitution. Things like healthcare. If the California state legislature wants to attempt to enact a universal healthcare program, they are perfectly free to. However, if Alabama doesn’t want to they should not be forced to enact their own or to pay for California’s.
What about those Alabamans(?) who don’t have healthcare and want it for free? They can move to California. Surely, you say, that would cause an influx of non-tax-paying people to California to leech off of their universal healthcare system and that would be awful! Indeed — that is a major downside of providing something to everyone at no cost to the recipient.
Assuming that tax-paying individuals found universal healthcare coverage to be something valuable, they will flock to states who provide it and reinforce effective policy with the movement of their tax dollars. Hey, that sounds a lot like competition?! It certainly does — make states compete for the tax dollars of its citizens just as they do for businesses (case in point, the $75 million tax break Washington (state) is giving Microsoft for a server farm to keep it in the state.) Competition is good, it sparks innovation and necessitates efficiency.
One behemoth federal system will be garbage, and we will see no other option other than to deal with it. It will be a drain on the economic and physical well-being of our younger generations for the sake of the prescription drugs and hip replacement surgeries of the same baby boomers who are destroying Social Security (another result of no competition and federal government overreaching.)
States’ rights is hugely important, and should be considered anytime that programs like universal healthcare are considered. The federal government has their fingers in so many pies already that they simply have no right to be in — education, healthcare, drug enforcement, agriculture, steroid use in sports, the list goes on. We need to cut out all of the federal fat and get back to the basics, leaving the states to decide those really important issues like whether or not Roger Clemens is a liar and how much money to give people to not grow anything on their farm land.
2 comments ↓
Hmm…I dunno. I agree the federal government does too much of the wrong stuff but I think they should do more of the right stuff better. States with criminalized abortion, systematic discrimination against same-sex couples, heinous environmental policies and theocratic tendencies …these things affect us all.
Ideally government should be as local as possible but there are certain rights (and responsibilities) that citizens at every address should enjoy.
You mention education… I like to remind people that free K-12 education is mandated by the state constitution in every single state in the union. It is not a federal mandate. It’s a wonderful mandate. But it came from the States.
Why, hello there! Long time no see, sir.
No state may violate the US Constitution. The examples you provide (with the exception of the environmental policies one, which really is covered by NIMBY) all violate various articles and could (and should) be taken up in State, then Federal court. We do have proper process for righting those wrongs, and it should be followed rather than drafting Federal legislation and executive orders for the sake of speediness.
Education is certainly majority-funded by individual states, but the Feds still chip in 10% of the cost and use that money to bribe states into adhering to its standards. Meaning, to lower their standards of achievement to qualify for Federal money as is the case with NCLB. Also thanks to NCLB, we are guaranteed military recruiters in public schools, ready to recruit more stupid kids with promises of YouTube notoriety by killing puppies.
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