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.
Westerners are rightly infuriated that members of Congress from Delaware, New York and Massachusetts, who have little or no knowledge about how to manage resources, are telling the farmers, miners and ranchers in places like Colorado, Montana and Utah what they can do with their own property.
Twenty-one state attorneys general in primarily Mountain and Southern states are suing Washington for blocking their prerogative to run their own fiscal policies.
They say that Biden is violating the 10th Amendment, which ensures that all rights not explicitly granted to the federal government “reside with the states and the people.”
For the future of our republic, let’s pray that the courts agree.
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with FreedomWorks. He is the co-author of “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive the American Economy.” To find out more about Stephen Moore and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Today the words “These United States of America” can only refer to the ones that stay United. All others need not apply and should add the word “Socialist” and “Severed” in place of the word “United” These Biden inspired freedom stealers have already stolen our right to live and breathe free, spend our own hard-earned incomes and use our own earned personal property as we see fit, who are aiming at our rights to bear arms, so why stop there and not steal our rights to work for whom we please? There is NOTHING American about these controllers of social outcomes, and if it was 1776 they would have been put up against a wall and shot as traitors, tarred and feathered, or at least treated and defunded as they American enemies of the states that they are. The rights to work are NOT enumerated as a power to be controlled by the federal government so the States must prevail.
I honestly think we as a nation, CAN not be united anymore.. There is just TOO DAMN much division.
IF the federal action IS NOT DIRECTLY COVERED IN AN ENUMERATED POWER the STATE is Superior to federal.
Anybody find all the “ENUMERATED POWERS” that ‘authorize; the department of interior, the labor department, education?
energy?
Welfare?
Housing?
Urban Development?
The ONLY 4 that are covered is:
WAR
STATE
Treasury
and
JUSTICE, as opposed to JUST-US
all others are Political constructs to REWARD SUPPORTERS that helped get CORRUPT POLITICIANS ELECTED.
Which is why if i had the power, i would TOTALLY AND UTTERLY ELIMINATE all federal departments, NOT EXPRESSLY CALLED for in the constitution.. AND PINK SLIP every damn one of the folks working in those depts.
Joe Biden is heading the country towards another civil war, no one between the states but between the sovereign states and the coalition they formed as a federal government. For too long states have let the national entity slowly usurp power from the disparate many and concentrate it for the good of all. The benefits have accrued to the East-West coast states and the central government leaving most states to fend for themselves and most doing a better job of it than those fancying themselves as the elite.
“They say that Biden is violating the 10th Amendment, which ensures that all rights not explicitly granted to the federal government “reside with the states and the people.” Biden is a communist, so the trash in Washington DC obviously wants to centralize everything and as a result, states will have no rights.
THEY violate every damn other amendment with impunity.. So why wouldn’t they also violate the 10th!
It is imperative that the states keep up their vigilance and not allow the federal government to usurp the authority of the states over their own lands and people. It is the only way that this nation will survive as a democratic republic rather than be changed into a socialist tyranny.