Someone Understands

I believe that freedom doesn’t exist until people demand it. The powerful will always choose to retain their supremacy, and so it is necessary for people to fight for freedom if they truly want to achieve it. It is the genesis of the axiom, “Freedom isn’t free.” The costs of freedom are often very high in terms of blood spilled, and the human suffering of great conflict. But it isn’t enough to fight for freedom; it is also a struggle to maintain it . . . a different kind of conflict that often involves words instead of bullets, even if the stakes are the same.

For quite a while now, I’ve been arguing that the fifty sovereign states have abrogated rights accorded to them under the United States Constitution. My proposition is that like freedom, if the states choose not to assert sovereignty, they’ll end up loosing it to an ever-encroaching federal bureaucracy. If the states lose their sovereignty, the people lose theirs as well. It is a serious matter, and one that I think few people are paying much attention to. The question is why would states give up their sovereignty? They do it under the guise of “cooperating” with federal policies and programs. They are willing to cooperate because, in the past, the federal government has been a source of “free money” to augment state spending. In this sense, the argument is that by accepting federal money, state officials can implement a more politically viable tax policy. Again, the key here is “spending.” So far, we have seen no meritorious examples of states making a concerted effort to reduce spending — so that in this sense, the states have become willing partners to state socialism.

According to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, however, two governors think the federal government has embarked upon an increasingly dangerous path. Finally, states may be on the verge of asserting states’ rights. Governor Rick Perry (TX) and Mark Sanford (SC) wrote:

“As governors and citizens, we've grown increasingly concerned over the past weeks as Washington has thrown bailout after bailout at the national economy with little to show for it.

“In the process, the federal government is not only burying future generations under mountains of debt. It is also taking our country in a very dangerous direction — toward a ‘bailout mentality’ where we look to government rather than ourselves for solutions. We're asking other governors from both sides of the political aisle to join with us in opposing further federal bailout intervention for three reasons.

First, we're crossing the Rubicon with regard to debt. […] [Read the article here]

I regard this is exceptionally good news. The fact is, all resources are limited . . . including monetary resources. We simply cannot afford everything for everybody, true within states with limited sources of revenue, and it is equally true for the federal government for the same reasons. We cannot provide unlimited programs with limited budgets, and only idiots can believe that we can sustain borrowing extraordinary sums of money from foreign governments or incurring so much debt, that the next three generations will continue encumbered.

Not only is this true for governments, it is true for individuals as well. Sam Huntington wrote a somewhat long but interesting piece at Conservative Convictions yesterday titled, “We reap what we sow.” Governments and families must prioritize their spending; it is essentially the basics of economics. It is possible to have Program A or Program B, but not at the same time. If Program A is the most important government expenditure, then it deserves full funding before considering Program B. This is a very inexpert example, but I think it makes an important point. The next consideration involves federal meddling in matters “reserved to the states, or to the people.” I can see no reason why the federal government should spend so much money each year on education. I might have a different point of view if our educational system produced the world’s best and brightest high school graduates, but it doesn’t. So not only are we wasting hard-earned tax money, we aren’t getting our money’s worth—true in education and a host of other government programs.

If my readers agree, then there is no time like the present to start sending letters to state governors, state legislators, and representatives in the U. S. Congress. I believe that without a ground swell of interest by the taxpayers, government is simply not going to change its behavior. And even if the change is painful, we should remember the axiom: no pain, no gain.

I would be interested in your point of view.