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Our
nation’s founders were more apprehensive about creating an all-powerful central
government than they were fearful of intervention by foreign states. For that
reason, they created a federalist Constitution designed to check and balance
the powers of governments. The United States Constitution enumerated only
limited powers to the federal government. It then divided those listed powers
among its three branches. But more importantly, it reserved all powers, not
specifically granted to the central government, to the states and to the
people.
They
envisioned each state as an independent entity that would fiercely defend those
Constitutional powers against incursions by the federal government. However, they
failed to anticipate that the exclusive powers granted to the federal
government to coin money might result in its ability to bribe the states into
giving up those states’ rights.
Following
World War II, the Brenton Woods Agreements fixed most international monetary
exchange rates relative to the U.S. dollar. At that time, the value of the
dollar was secured by convertibility to gold.
President
Richard Nixon terminated the gold standard by ending the international
convertibility of the U.S. dollar to gold in 1971. Since that time, most other
currency exchange rates continue to be valued relative to the U.S. dollar. For
those reasons, the federal government has been able to print an unlimited
quantity of currency.
This
abundance of cash has allowed our federal government to create and maintain
more than 1,100 grant-in-aid programs. Most of the funding for these programs
is secured by borrowing money through selling U.S. bonds. Borrowing money to
provide grant-in-aid to the states is a major cause of our incredible $18
trillion sovereign debt.
In
1970, the entirety of federal programs designed to “aid” the states cost
taxpayers about $24 billion. By 2015, the programs will exceed $640 billion,
adding as much as a trillion dollars to our untenable national debt each two
years. These massive spending programs are effectively controlling how states
develop and expend their budgets.
These
grant-in-aid programs collectively spend about one-sixth of the entire federal
budget on matters that are, and should be, the sole and undivided business of
state and local governments. This unprecedented tsunami of federal cash has
profoundly distorted how we govern ourselves.
Federal
grant-in-aid programs provide funding for about one-fourth of Oregon’s
all-funds budgets. They deliver federal cash for education, transportation,
medical care, public safety, environmental regulation, land acquisition, low-cost
housing and a multitude of other welfare programs. Their tentacles reach deeply
into virtually every state program.
Each
federal grant comes with detailed rules on how the money must be spent. Most
require matching state funds as a condition of receiving the grant. Many are multi-year awards that encourage the
creation of programs and bureaucracies that require maintenance of effort on
the part of the state. Of course, the entire program must eventually be
maintained by the state when the grant money ends.
In
upholding the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, Chief Justice John
Roberts wrote that Congress is authorized to expend federal funds to encourage
the states to voluntarily adopt policies that the federal government is not
constitutionally authorized to impose. Distant federal regulators manipulate
the state legislatures by offering cash awards to “incentivize” programs and
regulations that the regulators consider desirable. Legislators appear unable
to refuse this “free money,” regardless of its impact on either the peoples’
priorities or the constitutional rights of the state.
Ironically,
nothing is ever free. All of that federal money originates either from the
taxpayers or from money created through the selling of bonds. The principle and
interest on that borrowed money will be due and payable by our children.
The
states are certainly not required to accept what amounts to federal bribes.
However, refusing to take the money ensures that other states that are willing
to participate in the programs will receive the benefits provided by taxpayers
living in non-participating states.
As
much as one-third of the activity of the budget-writing Joint Ways and Means
Committee is focused on approving federal grant-in-aid applications. During the
interim between legislative sessions, the Emergency Board spends even more of
its time approving federal grants.
In
my opinion, the preponderance of these grants would never be funded if the
money originated from state revenue. Unfortunately, the committees have rarely,
if ever, actually refused to accept a federal grant, regardless of how wasteful
its provisions might be or how intrusive it may be upon constitutionally
protected states’ rights.
State
legislators are allowing their access to grant-in-aid “free federal money” to
subvert the division of state and federal obligations that were designed to
protect our individual liberties. State authority is being replaced by federal
administrative rules and regulations created by executive agencies.
In
this manner, states are rapidly losing their autonomy. They are becoming subdivisions,
or virtual puppets, of the all-powerful central government. Administrative
rules and regulations created by federal bureaucrats are nearly identical to
the edicts of the King of England that the founders so despised.
Please remember--If we do not stand up for rural Oregon, no one will.
Best Regards,
Doug
Senate District 28
Email: Sen.DougWhitsett@state.or.us I Phone: 503-986-1728
Address: 900 Court St NE, S-311, Salem, OR, 97301
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/whitsett
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