Federalism – it’s an argument as old as the country. Is the United States government a central government created by the several States to handle only those things that only a central government can do (protect the country, resolve disputes between the States, enter into treaties with other Countries) or is the United States government the only government, and the States are just departments that work on behalf of the people in Washington D.C.
Some of the mileposts along the way to the journey to one central government…
– “Revenue Sharing” – this was Richard Nixon’s idea… start providing funds to local towns to buy fire engines and pave roads and buy police cars – who could be opposed to that? But with money always comes strings and rules
– The 17th amendment to the Constitution which changed the U.S. Senate from being appointed by the legislatures of the States to being elected by the voters. The U.S. Senate and its deliberately slow processes are there to prevent “Democracy” for empowering the central government to take away functions that are State responsibilities and usurp them in violation of the Constitution
– Interstate Banking – prior to the late 1970s, banks were limited to operating only in a single state and could choose to be chartered by state governments (with oversight by the FDIC and the comptroller of the Currency) . The New York banks worried about things like sending money internationally – you didn’t have Bank of America branches in every state creating banks large enough to cause collapse of the entire system if one bank became insolvent
– “No Child Left Behind” empowered the Federal Government to supervise Education, which had always been a state and local function. This isn’t about Democrats and Republicans. No Child Left Behind was a Republican idea.
– Insurance regulation – that’s what this health care debate is about at its core. Insurance is the last bastion of where state governments get political power (and campaign contributions). Insurance today (with the exception of Medicare) is something tied to and regulated by the State where you live. While there are Insurance “brands” (Allstate, Blue Cross, AIG), they operate through separate subsidiaries in each state, and have to segregate assets – so that should AIG fail, that central failure would not cascade into putting all 50 states into a financial crisis
So that’s the fundamental “transformation” at play this week. Even the nice sounding compromise of just allowing insurance companies to offer insurance across state lines is about who will regulate insurance and protect its policy holders.
There is significant evidence that in the United States, we like national things – TV networks, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, ATM cards that work everywhere, Interstate highway systems with more or less uniform traffic signals and laws… there is a lot of momentum on the side of letting Washington D.C. make all the rules.
“This isn’t about Democrats and Republicans. No Child Left Behind was a Republican idea.” If Ted Kennedy was a Republican, then I’m a monkey’s uncle. (Note: this is not an excusal of George W. Bush for going along with it, but the point stands.)
President Bush did not just “go along” with it. In 2001, the Republicans controlled the House, They controlled the Senate unitl the Senator from Vermont switched parties.
Legislative history
Of if that isn’t strong enough, how about Bush’s Secretary of Education?
Congressional Testimony
It almost sounds like somebody had a plan to take us down from within. Oh, wait they did…
Direct quote from former Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev:
“We will take America without firing a shot…….We will BURY YOU! We can’t expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism. We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within.”
(From an address to Western Ambassadors at the Polish embassy in Moscow on November 18, 1956.)
If you browse around various Socialist and Communist web sites and publications, they are very clear that they own the leadership in Congress. They don’t hide what they are doing – they don’t view what they are doing as wrong or even debateable. Nobody in a major news outlet is going to point out the connections, and with the possible exception of Reagan, no Republican was/is working to turn back the tide. (while Reagan wanted to cut back the role of the Federal government, he also wanted a 1000 ship Navy and lots of spending to keep the US military capable of intervening in other people’s wars)
Excellent blog covering these issues (the author is from New Zealand!)
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/
Another important milepost was the broadening of rules for Federalization of the National Guard (activation of units by the President without the permission of a State’s Governor) that occurred under President Bush