Debate Desk
Should Washington Handle the Issues the States Now Handle?
Federalism lets states try different policies and keeps government close to the people; the Tenth Amendment reserves most powers to the states.
The claim
Some argue that the problems of a modern country, from education to health care to policing, are national in scope, that differences among states produce unfairness and that national standards would give every American the same protections.
The answer in three points
- The Constitution gives the federal government specific enumerated powers and leaves the rest to the states and the people. The Tenth Amendment says so. Education, policing, family law and most of the ordinary regulation of life fall to the states.
- States are laboratories. Different approaches can be tried and compared, and successful ones spread. When Washington imposes one solution, a mistake is national and affects everyone. The welfare reform of 1996 grew from state experiments.
- People can influence a government that is near. A state legislature or school board is easier to reach than a distant agency, and citizens can move to a state whose policies they prefer. This competition among jurisdictions is a source of freedom.
Federalism is not a way to avoid problems; it is a way to solve them close to the people who have them and to avoid the damage of one mistake imposed on everyone. The founders understood that a large republic needs layers of government, and that liberty is safest when power is divided.
The numbers
- The Tenth Amendment, ratified in 1791, provides that 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 Supreme Court held in Printz v. United States (1997) that the federal government may not commandeer state officials to carry out federal regulatory programs.
- Federal grants to state and local governments reach hundreds of billions of dollars a year, according to the Office of Management and Budget, with conditions attached.
What they will say next
"Some states violate rights." The Fourteenth Amendment and the courts protect basic rights everywhere, and that remedy is targeted.
"Unequal rules are unfair." Differences reflect different choices by different peoples, and the alternative is a single rule for the whole continent.
"States lack resources." They manage most of government's tasks, and they can raise revenue. Federal money often comes with strings that distort priorities.
"Problems cross state lines." Some do, and states can cooperate through compacts. Federal action is justified where the Constitution gives it power.
Self-government is strongest when it is closest to home.
"A patchwork of laws confuses businesses and citizens." It can, and when a matter is truly national, Congress has the power to act within its enumerated powers. For most everyday matters, differences between states are a feature, because people and businesses can compare results and move. Uniformity has a cost when the uniform rule is wrong.