News-Record.com

Let's hope Congress doesn't eliminate aid to states as it finalizes the stimulus package. If you want bang for the stimulus buck, the biggest bang comes not from federal spending but from state and local spending: roads, bridges, ports, schools, and other aspects of what I call economic infrastructure (which could include such things as expanding and extending broadband networks).

I would hope Washington would let states and localities decide where the money could be spent most effectivly.

The House bill prompted this story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which began:

"Milwaukee Public Schools would reap $88.6 million over two years for new construction under the economic stimulus package just passed by the U.S. House of Representatives - even though the district has 15 vacant school buildings, a large surplus of property and no plans for new construction."

http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/38762217.html

Now it would make sense to send that money to Guilford County for school construction.

I agree: state aid but also state-level decision making.

"We’re witnessing the biggest shift in political power in America in a generation: from the state capitals to Washington," Gary Pearce writes.

There is nothing more funny than a retarded campaign consultant republican suddenly waking up after 8 years of Bush imperial rule that the country is no longer a States Rights Republic.....Maybe he should demand a refund about his knowledge of America history.

Let's hope he is not stupid enough to show up at the coming food riots at Krogers thinking he is at Old Miss during the early 60's.

Hmm. Lately, the shrill, spitting, name calling, exaggerating, hate-filled comments seem to be coming from the supposedly better-educated, "change we can believe in" crowd.
Why is that?

Dear Doug:

I am far less sanguine about the idea that power will return to the states. I think the history since the War Between the States has been that the states, i.e., the sovereigns that created the Federal Government, are largely subservient to the Federal Government and have become mere instrumentalities of Washington. (As you know Congress can do nearly anything it wants simply by wrapping a law in the Commerce Clause. We have had only one case that I can recall since the New Deal in which a Federal Court has struck down a law because there was no relationship between the law and interstate commerce, and that was the Lopez case in 1995.)

Further, it is absolutely clear to me that our new president, Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid are all wedded to the idea that the problem is that government is not big enough or powerful enough and they are doing all they can to fix that by making it infinitely larger and more intrusive. The growth of government, of course, empowers the likes of Barney Frank (no problem with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac here) and other mediocres who would, without politics, live obscure but harmless lives. We should know by now that it is a rare bird indeed who willingly gives up political power. I don't think that Pelosi, Frank or any of the others in charge in Washington seek to emulate either Cincinnatus or George Washington and simply go home.

Best regards,

Paul Daniels