Monday, February 8, 2010

If we're really serious about states' rights...

Confederate flag

As the Utah State Legislature is busy demonstrating, the question of states' rights remains a divisive issue in the United States.  While some historians might argue it was more or less put to bed 145 years ago with the defeat of the Confederacy in The Civil War, this clearly isn't the case.

More than 300,000 Utahns are without health care coverage, we rank fifth in the nation in the number of foreclosures and a record number of our citizens are currently on Food Stamps.  Now wouldn't seem a very propitious time to be insisting the federal government butt out of our affairs, especially since the Utah Legislature has shown absolutely no interest in dealing seriously with Utah's health care crisis or expanding, or even maintaining social programs to help those most in need during the current crisis.

The bills and resolutions being considered this year effectively telling the United States Government to take a hike include a prohibition on state agency cooperation with the government on implementation of health care reform (assuming the Congress ever gets around to passing something), legislation exempting guns made in Utah from any federal gun laws, resolutions trumpeting states' rights and Utah's "sovereignty", a resolution opposing regulation of green house gas emissions by the feds and a resolution insisting on the removal of the wolf from the Endangered Species List allowing us to kill any wolf that dares enter the Beehive State.

Okay, so we elected these folks and they have clearly determined the state's top priority, or maybe second priority after cutting education and fraying the safety net even further, is to emancipate Utah from the clutches of the federal government.  Fine, let's not mess around.  The slave states of the south may have lost, but they didn't mess around and neither should we if this is really what the people of Utah expect from their elected officials.

Turning down all federal funding for Medicare, Medicaid, transportation, education and the school lunch program, just to name a few, is the best place to start if this is about Utah demonstrating sovereignty and self reliance as legislators claim.  It is the height of hypocrisy, not to mention ingratitude, to take all this federal money but insist the feds have no right to tie strings to it.  If we don't like the strings, don't take the money.

In addition, public lands management is an ongoing sore spot with our legislature and apparently at least a few vocal Utahns.  Instead of passing endless resolutions insisting federal land managers really have no business managing federal lands, let's make an offer and see if the feds won't sell them to us.  We'll have to raise taxes just to come up with the down payment, but the US Government could use the money right now and we would finally be out from under their thumb.

Finally, no truly sovereign state can have such a heavy United States military presence on its sacred soil.  Utah abuts no foreign country, so there can really be no reason beyond intimidation for the US government to have two Army facilities and an Air Force base within our borders.  Time for the military to get lost.  And while the feds are packing up, they can build that massive National Security Agency facility they are planning in some other state where people don't care about their freedom as much as we do.

If the federal government doesn't allow us to turn down all their money, accept our offer to buy the public lands, and withdraw its military presence, then the legislature should vote to secede.   All this bloviating about states' rights is getting tiresome.  Either Utah lawmakers mean we are a sovereign state and the feds are exceeding their constitutional powers or they don't.  Something about getting off the pot comes to mind here.  If all these bills and resolutions amount to nothing but posturing, then stop wasting taxpayer time and money and get down to actually conducting the people's business.

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