Posted on 04/20/2009 11:18:30 AM PDT by Sudetenland
So Mr. Governor Rick Perry has discovered that big federal government is an anathema to state governments as well as the nation’s citizens.
Governor Perry's new found voice on fiscal restraint is refreshing; it appears that being forced to run for office every now and then does serve a purpose.
After serving for years as a relatively mediocre governor, Mr. Perry faces his first real challenge from another candidate in his own party, the retiring Senator from Texas, Mrs. Kay Bailey Hutchison who is polling very well within the state.
His decision last month to reject that portion of federal stimulus funds that would simultaneously increase unemployment benefits and burden the states with funding those benefits after the initial funds offered by the federal government were depleted, while laudable, was only a symbolic expression of independence.
(Excerpt) Read more at houstonconservative.com ...
I agree here. States have been taking federal money for many years and have always complained about the strings attached. The only way to stop the strings is to stop taking the money.
Sounds good in theory, but it isn’t within the Governor’s jurisdiction to turn down all federal funds, including bailout funds.
An analogy, imagine your mayor gives your block a ‘bailout’ but you refuse it in principle. Some of those bailout funds can still be spent on your property for telephone poles and sewer that fall under the city’s jurisdiction.
The States are macro versions of this. The governor isn’t a dictator, the feds have jurisdiction over a lot that the governor can’t turn down. I see a lot of bashing of Palin and Perry for not turning down 100%, but the fact is, legally they can’t.
Perhaps not, but he can set the agenda within the state legislature to do so. Highway funds for state highways, funds from the DOE for our schools and the like can all be turned down. Those are state functions and the feds have no business interfering in them whatsoever.
Except that you then put the Governor into the difficult position of having citizens who pay into the black hole of DC and get nothing in return. Texas is the only state that I am aware of that can fix this.
You can’t stop taking the money, because the feds are taking the money from you first.
Most states send more money to Washington than they get back (well, at least that was true before we started spending twice as much money as we take in taxes).
So most states would be better off if they just got to keep the federal taxes of their own citizens.
In 2005, Texas got back 88 cents for every dollar in federal taxes. So they would be better off.
New Mexico gets over $3 in money back for every dollar they pay in federal taxes. Don’t know why. Mississippi was second, and West Virginia was 3rd.
“nothing”?
What we get is worse than nothing. DC is giving us social, political, economic, and cultural poison. We would be far better off without all of those really swell federal programs, mandates, and regulations. Real people - net taxpayers, that is - don’t get anything from the federal dollars that state revenues can’t cover. So, let DC keep the money and get DC the hell out of Texas.
Sounds fine. And then turn around and redirect all withholding to state coffers and tell the fed to stop collecting federal taxes.
These 2 paragraphs tell it all:
“Now we are faced with the distasteful and hard to swallow truth. The reason all of these states, which of late have passed these resolutions of states’ rights, are forced to do so is that they have voluntarily surrendered their sovereignty for the “filthy lucre” of our federal government.
That’s right folks; this transfer of power from the states to the federal government is a direct result of the state governments’ greed for federal dollars. Cut the flow of dollars from Washington DC to your state and you cut the reins with which the federal government exercises its control.”
True, but explain that to the feds!
Worse is unfunded mandates.
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