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States' rights may be unhealthy
(by Dave Lange - October 08, 2009)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
States' rights may be unhealthy
State Sen. Timothy Grendell, R-Chester, has won passage of an Ohio Senate resolution to slap the meddling federal government silly.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 13 sends a reminder to Washington about the 10th Amendment, part of our beloved Bill of Rights. It says: "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."
My recollection of states' rights dates back to the time when conservatives in Washington forced states like Ohio to raise their legal drinking age from 18 to 21 and when liberals coerced 55 mph speed limits on highways from coast to coast. But I sense this newfound attention to "states' sovereignty" has little to do with drinking younger and driving faster.
Calling this "a time when the federal government is rapidly expanding," the resolution just might have more to do with the divisive subject of health-care reform initiated by a Democrat in the White House than with Mr. Grendell's reference to the bank bailouts initiated under a Republican president and unfunded federal mandates such as the No Child Left Behind Act imposed on local schools by that same Republican.
While sponsors of states' rights resolutions appear to be correct in that the Constitution does not give the federal government the power to bail out banks or mandate educational policy with taxpayers' money, health care is quite another matter.
The preamble to the Constitution calls upon our "more perfect union" to "promote the general welfare." Article 1, section 8, clause 1 of the Constitution empowers Congress to collect taxes "to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States." The framers of the Constitution understood perfectly well then and people with dictionaries know now that "welfare" refers to "health, happiness and prosperity."
Some citizens may not like the fact that the Constitution calls upon Congress to collect taxes for the health, happiness and prosperity of their fellow citizens in this "more perfect union." But it is a fact nonetheless. Many also object to the notion that Congress should collect taxes to pay the nation's debts, and some disagree over what it means to provide for the common defense. No matter what the government does, it can't make everybody happy and prosperous.
The federal government cannot make the citizens healthy either, but it does try. For example, there are environmental laws to limit noxious chemicals and pollutants in the air we breathe and the water we drink, agricultural regulations that keep poisons out of the food we eat and medical oversight that produces vaccines to save lives from the swine flu.
Thank the God we trust that the states do not have rights to flout environmental laws, food and drug regulations or disease controls.
But there is nothing in the Constitution that gives the federal government authority to collect taxes to subsidize oil and gas exploration on public lands, build and maintain highways that promote urban sprawl, provide commercial-air-traffic safety for those who can afford to fly or cut down timber in our national forests, including in Ohio, for private profits.
Those who truly believe in states' rights have better things to complain about than health-care reform. But hypocrites don't.
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