Uncle Sam’s generosity seems to know no bounds these days.
Apparently, Washington policymakers have turned the money spigot full blast as federal funding – both “stimulus” and traditional federal money – pours out of the national treasury and into state coffers.
This is happening to such a degree that federal aid has overtaken state taxes as the single biggest source of income for states, according a new USA Today article.
What’s most unsettling here is not that the federal government is so carelessly lavishing the states with extra funding that it doesn’t have, it’s that Washington is gaining overt control over the purse strings of our state governments and that has the potential to have a very real impact on state and local policy decisions.
There’s a reason our Founders included the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights: it’s so that the principle of federalism could be maintained and the powers of the federal government could be enumerated and restrained. I truly hope Washington hasn’t found a way around that vision under the guise of providing states with “stimulus” in this recession.
– James Quintero