Monday, November 3, 2008

The most ignored Amendment in the Constitution...

It's not the 1st Amendment. That's the most abused.

It's not the 2nd Amendment. That's the most attacked.

It's the 10th Amendment. The one that says:
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.

It is time that we remind the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches of the Federal Government of this Amendment. There is too much interference from Washington, D.C. in the rights of the people and the states they dwell in. Why is this important? Because the full-time Congress in D.C. is excessively insulated from their own actions. Remember the House Banking scandal a few years ago? The US House had a bank, issued checking accounts to Congressmen and Congresswomen, some of whom promptly overdrew their accounts, and were then forgiven by the bank. How many people have banks that will do that when you start writing bad checks? To the tune of $1000s of dollars? Haven't you seen the stickers in businesses 'We prosecute bad checks?' If I went down the street, wrote a check for $1000 I didn't have, the bank wouldn't pay it, the business would try to collect, and if they couldn't, I'd go to jail! Not Congress.


We need to return much of the business of day to day governing back to the states. The Federal Government is responsible to provide for common defense, but only to promote the general welfare. States should run their own programs designed to provide, internal to those states, their own programs for general welfare, such as health care for the poor, education, unemployment, and human services. The reduction of federal spending and taxation would allow for people to afford a higher state-level of taxation (many federal tax dollars are turned back to states to run these programs anyway. There's just an extra level of bureaucracy.) This state taxation would be directed by the members of state legislatures, who represent smaller portions of the population, and are therefore more accountable.

Read further posts to see more details. We're going to spend 4 years establishing more than just buzzwords and soundbites, but coming up with real, practical plans. It might mean scrapping many things, but it can be done!


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