Amendment X

"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."

The above is the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution. While it's easy enough to understand, even more simply it means: "Hey States--the Congress has 18 things it can do and that's it. Anything else--it's up to your or your citizens." Our current President once described our Constitution as a "charter of negative liberties; says what the states can't do to you, what the federal government can't do to you, but it doesn't say what the federal government must do on your behalf." For possibly the first time in my life, I agree with Barack Obama.

He's right. The Constitution says what the federal government can't do to you. Where Obama and I (or any conservative or libertarian) go our separate ways is why our founding documents contain those words. Obama looks at it as "...the Constitution reflected an enormous blindspot in this culture that carries on into this day and that the Framers had this same blindspot." He goes on to say the Constitution "...reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day." The problem with this line of thinking is it's, well, wrong. It was by design the U.S. Constitution limited the federal government. The Founders came here from a country that controlled every aspect of their lives (interesting parallel: a few months back the EPA held a contest where people were supposed to make a video showing how great it was that no part of their lives went untouched by government regulation). Read through the Declaration of Independence sometime, it lists over twenty different reasons for breaking away from England's oppressive and tyrannical King George III. The Founders wrote the Declaration, and later the Constitution, in order to free themselves and all Americans from an overbearing government.

The Founders limited the federal government on purpose, effectively creating States that could become laboratories for good ideas. If the people living there didn't like something they could "vote with their feet" and move away. If people from one state thought another state had a good thing going, they could head on over and reap the perceived rewards. A very basic example would be New York vs. New Jersey and their respective income tax rates. In New Jersey, someone making under $35,000 is taxed at 1.75%. In New York, the same income is taxed at 6.85%. Those looking to escape New York's high taxes can flee to New Jersey and retain nearly 5% more of their money. And when you're only making $35K, that 5% is pretty important. That was the design. The federal tax rate for $35,000 is 25%. You don't like it? Tough. The only way to escape that is to leave the country. This can be applied to anything the federal government does and any program they run--they're inescapable.

I was going to close this post by saying something akin to "What Obama doesn't understand is the Founders didn't "miss" something when they wrote the Constitution, they left it out intentionally." The problem with that sentence is it's not that Obama doesn't understand what the Founders did, it's that he doesn't like it. And you know what? That's fine. Contained in the Constitution is a way to change the Constitution--through the amendment process. If he believes the government should provide healthcare (which he does), create an amendment. If he wants the federal government to provide student loans (which through the new healthcare law, it does), add an amendment. If he wants control of General Motors (check), write an amendment. The problem is he's done all of the above without going through the amendment process, not only destroying State's rights in the process, but circumventing the Constitution completely.

Obama may not agree with our Founder's decision to limit federal power, but as it stands, anything not enumerated to the Congress by the eighteen powers are left to the states. This was no accident.