A Broken System

Everyone knows that the current system of government is not working. Politicians in Washington are looking out for their own interests, not the people they are supposed to be representing. Their interests lay in the corporations, unions, lobbyists, PAC’s and other special interest groups that fund their campaigns. The current taxing and spending by our “representatives” in DC is in no way representing the people of the several states. Our federal government has transformed into a national government.
A federal government represents a limited central government based on a contract, which the several states signed, the Constitution. A national government on the other hand represents a central government which is directly responsible to the people. This is where are system went off track. The Constitution set up a federal government, not a national one. The several states created the federal government and limited it in its scope, see Article I section 8 of the United States Constitution. The limited nature of the federal government can be seen in several instances like the 10th Amendment and in Article V, allowing states to call a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution. It can also be found in the ratification debates, where delegates guaranteed the limited nature of the federal government to allow the states their own sovereignty. Some states even stressed their right to withdraw from the Union.
When several states decided to sever ties with the ever growing federal government usurpation of power, a war broke out between the several states. History has clouded the causes of the war, but at its root was the limited power of the Union vs. the unlimited power of a national government. They say the union was preserved, but several states had seceded before the War Between the States and had to be readmitted after bowing to the National government. The states lost a lot of their sovereignty following their war, and regardless of what anyone says it’s not a slavery issue. After the Union strengthened its position, it continued to take power away from the states and continued its transformation into the central government monster it is today.
The next major assault came during the height of the progressive era. First, the Union gave itself the right to directly tax the citizens on the fruits of their labor with the 16th Amendment. They eliminated the states check on the federal power by changing the Constitution on the election of Senators. People, not the states elected Senators after the adoption of the 17th Amendment.
This is where we got so off track. The states created a federal government and should fund it. The President presents a budget to run the federal government and Congress, which should represent the people and the states, approves the budget. The states should then send funding to the federal government. The federal government should not be allowed to tax the people or the states for funding. That’s the recipe for disaster, states created the fed, but the fed gets to control the money. To me that would be like putting my kids in charge of the family finances. I would be overrun with toys and candy but wouldn’t have groceries or power. Are they really going limit their spending to their allowance? Look at our national government now; are they staying limiting themselves to their allowance? The national government takes money from the states and then decides how much to give back to them after it takes their cut. How is that right, the states created the national government but it gets to decide how much money the states get to spend. The states, through Congress, needs to approve the budget and send only that money to the national government. Giving the government the legal authority to plunder the states and the residents living within those states just breaths more life into the national monster; couple that with removing the last state check in the Senate and the path was paved to transform our limited federal government, into an unstoppable central national government. We are so far gone, is there any hope for our country when the inmates are running the asylum?