Liberals and conservatives alike, would you like to see more power transfered from the federal government?

Question

back to the states?
What are some good examples of powers the federal government shouldnt' have?

Answer 1

A great deal of federal involvement comes from the clause that they are to regulate interstate commerce. Basically, anything involved in moving goods from one state to another can be regulated, including the goods themselves. I believe this clause has been incredibly abused.

However, the federal government is involved in even more things where I don't even know where they get the excuse to do it. Show me where in the Constitution it says the Federal government should be involved in:

Education
Social Security
Research
Medicare

None of the above have anything to do with interstate commerce, nor are they authorized anywhere else in the Constitution. I'm sure if I spent some more time, I could easily increase that list.

Answer 2

Yes, I think there's certain social programs that are run inefficiently by the federal government; however, during the Great Depression, social programs could not be run by local gov'ts because they didn't have enough money. That's still the issue now. There must be some solution (I'm not smart enough to come up with it, however) that could do something about the inefficiency of the fed gov't and the lack of funding from the state...

I also think No Child Left Behind is a massive problem, so perhaps the federal gov't could keep their paws out of education (if they can only come up with crap ideas that is).

Answer 3

The federal government should only have powers expressly mentioned in the constitution, everything else is the power of the states. It would wipe out the majority of the federal government, and the powers to remove are too numerous to list here.

Answer 4

Absolutely. The federal government should have only power to protect the country and improve its infrastructure. Social programs are not the government's responsibility.

Answer 5

The power to interfere with the free market (impose fuel standards, regulate product safety, et al), the power to allow employers to deduct your income taxes (I feel that we should have to write a monthly check so we SEE how expensive these goons are), and the power to send tax dollars to foreign places.

All government spending should be at state levels except military upkeep.

K-12, State Universities, welfare, roads/bridges/dams, public broadcasting, aviation security, park upkeep, housing projects, drug war are all things the federal government should hand off to states and private individuals!

Answer 6

I think education should be done at the state level and the federal part should be abolished but each state should send a group to Washington each year to have a conference with all the states to share idea's.

Answer 7

Yes!

It is much easier for the individual to have a voice in the local gov't. Local should override, if local cant do it then it should work its way up from there. The gov't was setup that way at one point, neither party wants it anymore because the gov't is currently in no way accountable to the people-only to corporations.

Money should stay federal of course (confederacy showed us that money doesnt work locally).

Answer 8

Decentralization of power is always a good thing.

The federal government should be in charge of the military, the value of the currency, immigration, federal law enforcement and foreign policy...and that's it.

Answer 9

yes i believe that the power should be shifted from the federal government
and places directly into the hands of the people

Answer 10

Yes!

By the looks of it, we are ready to take the power away from federal politicians.