One Senator's Simple Reform that Would Shrink the Federal Budget by 1/6th -- and How it Could Pass

TheBlaze Books ^ | 2014-12-11 | Benjamin Weingarten

[fredericbastiat1]

James Buckley, former U.S. senator from New York of the Conservative Party (also the first and only senator ever elected from the Conservative Party), under secretary of state during the Reagan and Bush administrations, federal judge, and the Buckley in the landmark campaign finance decision, Buckley v. Valeo, has a plan that could singlehandedly shrink the federal budget by one-sixth, restore the balance of federalism and Constitutional order, return power to the states and the people, and in the process improve the services provided to taxpayers.

The novel idea to achieve these ends is the subject of his slender but insightful new book, “Saving Congress from Itself: Emancipating the States and Empowering Their People,” and it is as follows: eliminate all federal grants-in-aid.

What are grants-in-aid, and why in the world would members of Congress cede control of 17% of the federal budget and with it a substantial portion of their power?

[expat2]

I support his intent, but it seems to me that it is primarily a transfer of spending from the Feds to the States, who are also short of $$. Tho some of the programs would die an merited death, many others would still be needed.

[robert14]

Yes. Yes. Yes. I have asked about this for years. Why do we send money to the feds that just goes back to the states? What a waste. It also gives power to the feds that they should not have. The Education Department is an example. Get rid of it and let the states control their education money.

[impimp]

Needed by who?

[Jacquerie]

<>“an aroused electorate is capable of political miracles”<>

Capable? Yes, but a democratic republic like ours, unmoored from its constitution is more prone toward majoritarian tyranny.