10th Amendment

Feb 13

“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.”

This is the 10th amendment to the United States Constitution, which effectively limits the power that the central government has. Have we forgotten this? Whatever happened to letting states decide things for themselves? Or even more, giving the rights to the people (without having it become a law).

On the cusp of the likely signing into law of the Economic Stimulus Plan by President Obama, I can’t help but wonder how we got to this place. This place is one where the federal government gets to control so much of such a wide variety of areas. Will spending more of (essentially) our money revive us? I have my doubts as that has been tried before by FDR’s administration.

This whole administration change has been interesting while I’m reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, who would likely say that what President Obama stands for some of the most ultimate in evil because he is taking from the competent and giving to the incompetent.*

Check out the 10th Amendment Center.

What can we do? Perhaps decentralize the government a bit, huh? Not only is the government fairly unable to spend all of that money in a wise way, but they (at least in my mind) are going against the founding documents that this country is based on. Pragmatists will argue that desperate times call for desperate measures, but ideals are not just nebulous vapor. They are the foundation. Don’t let the foundation rot just so that the roof has new shingles. You can imagine the effect or even perhaps read about it here.

_{* - Amusingly, I say this as if I know Rand even though I’m only halfway through the novel. So if you know contrary please let me know but don’t spoil the novel for me!}