Washington Gives and Takes with Strings Attached

The Tenth Amendment is back in vogue in the United States.

The federal government has crammed itself with money taken from the several states from their state revenues, sales, and excise taxes. Thereafter the federal government withholds sending the money to the states for internal improvements and structural changes, unless those states enact laws giving more power to the Federal Government.

Everything from speed limits, drinking-age limits, and even ratifying amendments o the Constitution, are all carried out through this legal, federalize extortion.

Washington dangles federal grants to the needy states, demanding that they accord with their vision of a top-down unitary, centralized system, completely contrary to the federalist vision outlined by the Framers in the United States Constitution.

The Fifty States define and determine this extensive Union. The Beltway has no right to tightens its release of state funds without expanding its overextended powers.

Here's to every Governor, to every state legislator who stands up the federal government, who turns down federal largesse in order to retain its rightful autonomy and sovreignty.