The passage of the 17th Amendment (direct election of US Senators) in 1913 inverted the relationship of the Federal government to the States. Previously, US Senators were elected by their respective state legislatures and as such reported to and protected the interests of the states in federal matters. Now the federal government is in control of the states and one of the fruits of that has been the willingness of the federal government to spend far more money than it takes in.
We can debate tax policy and tax rates all day, but what counts is spending. Economist Milton Friedman pointed out the obvious: the federal government must get the money it spends by borrowing, inflating or taxing. Since the federal spending is so out of balance, the best way to throttle its powers over all of us is to forbid it to borrow any more.
As a political reality, people today are far more worried about the level of government debt than ever before. So, the time may be sufficiently ripe to enable such an amendment to pass.
We must do everything we can to put the Leviathan State back in its cage while we still can.
Greetings theBuckwheat:
Very well stated, dear FReeper.
Cheers,
OLA