States Fight Back Against Biden War on the West

Townhall.com ^ | April 6, 2021 | Stephen Moore

[Kaslin]

President Ronald Reagan used to refer to our country as "these United States," not "the United States."

That may seem to be an inconsequential grammatical difference, but a whole different philosophy of our system of government is embedded in that phraseology. Reagan reinforced the traditional notion of American federalism: that the states created the federal government, not the other way around.

The states are to serve as "laboratories of democracy." Our Founding Fathers' ingeniousness was recognizing that healthy competition among the states was the best way to devise policy solutions.

This brings us to President Joe Biden. No president in modern times, perhaps ever, has shown such contempt for our system of federalism.

So I was thrilled to see this headline from, of all places, Alaska: "Dunleavy Tells Feds Alaska Is Taking Over Management of 800,000 Miles of River."

Alaska is asserting its right as a state to control its lakes and rivers. Gov. Mike Dunleavy is so fed up, and he has asked the Biden administration to "stop bothering Alaskans."

Bravo.

We need governors and state lawmakers to show much more of this peaceful defiance when Washington oversteps. That's happening a lot lately. Biden has declared no more drilling on federal lands in the West, and this federal directive will cost these states potentially trillions of dollars. The authorities are also planning to take millions of acres of land in the West out of development.

The Biden team wants to overturn state right-to-work laws that have been a half-centurylong tradition in most Western states. The Treasury Department has even now asserted authority to intervene and stop states, such as Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah and Montana, from cutting taxes in their states. Simultaneously, wealthy coastal states are looking to eliminate the state and local tax deduction limits included in former President Donald Trump's 2017 tax package. The current limit is $10,000, and eliminating it would likely favor wealthier, liberal taxpayers whom Democrats always say do not pay "their fair share." The Biden administration might want to urge New York and California to ease the tax burdens in those states instead of taking it out on Western states.

The Biden team wants to overturn state right-to-work laws that have been a half-centurylong tradition in most Western states. The Treasury Department has even now asserted authority to intervene and stop states, such as Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah and Montana, from cutting taxes in their states. Simultaneously, wealthy coastal states are looking to eliminate the state and local tax deduction limits included in former President Donald Trump's 2017 tax package. The current limit is $10,000, and eliminating it would likely favor wealthier, liberal taxpayers whom Democrats always say do not pay "their fair share." The Biden administration might want to urge New York and California to ease the tax burdens in those states instead of taking it out on Western states.

[PIF]

However, those Western states are the leaders in aggressively pursuing the 40 year old War on Natural Resource Harvesters.

[Article10]

The ultimate 🖕 to the uniparty and Fedzilla from the States would be a Constitutional Convention with the sole purpose of repealing the 17th Amendment and ending the Senior Executive Service.

You want to see the uniparty in all of its ugliness, it’s evil core... who’s loyalties lie where.... the process of Repealing the 17th Amendment would trigger such sights, statements, threats and all manner of unspeakable acts in a supposedly developed country.

[kabar]

[The Great RJ]

I think our new cold civil war will be fought with states defying federal edicts especially Biden’s executive orders.

The Keystone XL pipeline is about 95% completed. Could individual states like South Dakota allow construction to continue within their borders? How could Biden shut down construction until the pipeline was fait accompli ? Court injunctions have to be enforced and if state authorities even dragged their feet, did not cooperate with federal authorities and allowed construction to continue the pipeline could be finished. Then what ...would Biden send federal agents to shut off the pipeline who would be met with state forces that sent them packing? Shutting things off on the Canadian side would be very difficult. I think states taking the initiative and using their 10th Amendment rights could slow if not stop the Biden socialist juggernaut.

[AlphaLobo]

I think the question of Federal “authority” to own land should be looked at. Where in the Constitution does it say the Feds can own land in a State? If it doesn’t then the States should claim that land and send the Bureau of Land Management packing.

[Still Thinking]

I’ve always thought ‘federal lands’ might be the key to fixing Social Security. I mean, since it was started up by paying out to people who had never paid in, and payments from new generations of workers are needed to pay off those who have paid in, how can you ever shut down that socialist boondoggle and power center for pols who can last be trusted with it and least deserve any power? Somebody always stands to get screwed.

Well, ‘federal ownership’ of lands also gives them a lot of power, so it’s another problem that needs a solution. But....if we sold off the lands to buy out the last generation of Socialist Security victims, it fixes both problems in one shot.