Posted on 02/23/2009 3:12:13 AM PST by Scanian
State governors -- looking down the gun barrel of long-term spending forced on them by the Obama “stimulus” plan -- are saying they will refuse to take the money. This is a Constitutional confrontation between the federal government and the states unlike any in our time.
In the first five weeks of his presidency, Barack Obama has acted so rashly that at least 11 states have decided that his brand of “hope” equates to an intolerable expansion of the federal government’s authority over the states. These states -- Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, California, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas -- have passed resolutions reminding Obama that the 10th Amendment protects the rights of the states, which are the rights of the people, by limiting the power of the federal government. These resolutions call on Obama to “cease and desist” from his reckless government expansion and also indicate that federal laws and regulations implemented in violation of the 10th Amendment can be nullified by the states.
When the Constitution was being ratified during the 1780s, the 10th Amendment was understood to be the linchpin that held the entire Bill of Rights together. The amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
“expansion of the federal government’s” we may see alot of this under the democrats rule.
I thought it was the other way around -- that the States gave to federal government its power. I didn't think Congress had the authority to tell all the states (not just any state) how its own Constitutional structure can function.
How can Congress think it can simply pass a law that overturns the states' own power structures by "giving" the legislatures the right to overturn a governor on this?
-PJ
Obama’s concerned: 11 out of 57 states is a lot.
The “Republic of Texas” still has a nice rign to it. Just saying...
“ring” Oop’s.
I think the states in question ought to take the money and give it directly back to their citizens in proportion to the federal taxes those citizens pay. Get it out of Washington, but keep their collective state hands clean of it.
Let’s see which states are more prosperous in a few years - the ones that spent it on “jobs” or the ones who let their citizen’s have their own money back.
Where is Sarah on this list? She should be leading the charge.
That would be “wasteful” spending
If any states do in fact manage to refuse the money, watch the Federal government continue to tax them, by the end of a barrel of a gun if need be.
Yep!!
“These states — Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, California, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas — have passed resolutions reminding Obama that the 10th Amendment protects the rights of the states,...”
I can’t find any evidence that New Hampshire has passed such a resolution. One has been introduced:
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HCR0006.html
It looks like the resolution will simply die without a vote. The majority democrats in the committee that studied the resolution judged it “Inexpedient to Legislate”. I imagine it took them all of 2 or 3 minutes to trash it.
The title of the article is a swindle; New Hampshire has NOT “Declared Sovereignty”. As an official position, the government of NH still loves Obama and his Obamunism.
I continue to think the New Hampshire resolution is publicity-seeking hype by the powerless Republicans who remain in the legislature.
Whether that means she'll eventually turn the money down or not, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
California?
Heard Arnold this morning talking about just how dreamy the Stimulus is.
(Used to refer to Arnold as “The Covert Kennedy”...but he’s come fully out of the closet.)
LLS
One AZ Rep has authored a Bill that’s refreshing.
There was a guy from NH (Issa?) on Fox & Friends this AM talking this up. He didn’t seem like the sharpest pencil in the box but his heart appears to be in the right place.
It’s sad when people writing for Human Events (and their editors) have so little clue about how government works.
Too many people seem to believe that just introducing a non-binding resolution in a state legislature will have an effect on the out-of-control federal government.
Even if it passed (which, as you say, it won’t), it doesn’t actually DO anything. It doesn’t require the NH government to refuse to take bailout money, or resist the feds, or anything else. It just attempts to tell the feds what to do, and the last time I checked the NH state legislature doesn’t actually have any authority over the federal government.
Sure, the U.S. constitution says the states have rights, but at least two branches of the federal government simply ignore that. How about a bill requiring the NH government to assert its rights by suing the feds? That wouldn’t pass this legislature either, but at least it would be more than empty words.
I live in NH too, and I agree that it is turning into a communist gulag. Fools keep voting fools into office, and we’re all going to suffer for their foolishness.
First of all, I'm pretty sure NONE of these resolutions have passed even a committee vote. I'm even more certain that NONE have passed the full legislative bodies of these states.
I can give more details about the situation in my home state of Georgia. The original resolution was introduced in 1995, and went nowhere. It was reintroduced as House Resolution 280 in the Georgia General Assembly by Scott Martin. There are 5 other co-sponsors. It is not currently scheduled for a vote.
Many bills and resolutions get introduced like this and never see the light of day. The original version of this resolution in Georgia died without a vote in the 1995-1996 session.
Maybe others can bring us up to speed on this measure in other states. And we should support these measures where they are pending. But don't believe that we can "declare victories" in eleven states. We haven't even started fighting in those states yet.
Absolutely! No victory celebrations called for-—just lots of letter and email writing, phone calls, organized rallies...whatever we can do to support this movement!
Ping to read later; three cheers for state sovereignty!
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