States Rights

For some time now I have been thinking more about government and it's role. Inparticular the role of the State Governments vs the Federal Governments. Usually the issue of states right is only brought up in contencious issues of abortion, gay marrage and confederate flags, traditionally conservative issues. The issue of States rights dates back to the beginning of our country. It was one of the reasons for the civil war.

Yesterday I read about Berkeley California kicking Marine recruiters out of there city. A republican Congressmen fired back a said that they would withhold 2 million dollars of funding set aside for the city and for University of California - Berkeley. I do realize that Berkeley is a city not a state but the dynamic I see are is same.

When when the people disagree with the federal government they manipulate them by withholding money, and because they really hold all the money they have a lot of leverage. This tactic was also used when Massachusetts enacted the health care law to provide health insurance for everyone in the state, something the Bush administration didn't want to happen.

In thinking about issues poverty, it makes me wonder what our country would look like if States had more control than the federal government. What if most of our tax's went to the State instead of Washington? What if a dollar of my tax's went directly to the local school instead of traveling to Washington and back again loosing value as it went to congress, to the Department of Education, back to the State, the States Education Department, and then to my local school.

We do need a federal goverment. We need a place to discuss the complex issues of how states work together, not to mention a federal military and the need for someone to handle international deplomacy. But do we need a federal goverment that is a big as we have now? I also recoganize that the same minuplication can take place at the state level as at the federal level. It will happen anywhere where there is a lot of money changing hands.

Just a though.