State’s Rights
“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.
- 10th Amendment, U.S. Constitution.
The final piece of the Bill of Rights was one of the most vital. Alexander Hamilton questioned and fought the concept behind the 10th Amendment originally, as he felt it was an unnecessary addition to the Constitution to explicitly state what he felt was clear. If the power for an action was not granted within the founding document of the nation, the federal government could not undertake the effort. As he stated in Federalist 45, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite… The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.”
Eventually Hamilton relented, and the 10th Amendment was adopted.
What was utterly apparent to Hamilton is largely ignored by the federal government today, despite the clarity of the 10th Amendment. The federal government regularly inserts itself into areas reserved to the states.
President Obama’s healthcare monstrosity is a prime example of federal government overreach. I will not stand for this intrusion into an area reserved to the states. This past legislative session, I signed HB67, which exempts Utahns from the requirement under Obamacare to buy health insurance. Additionally, along with 20 other states, Utah is challenging the constitutionality of the healthcare bill. Federal intrusion into states rights will no longer be winked and nodded at in exchange for tax dollars that we are simply borrowing from future generations.
We should never forget that the states created the federal government, not the other way around. In today's political environment, it is all too easy to feel an increasing temptation to let Washington take care of us in a variety of ways. But we know from experience that a government closest to the people is more responsive, more effective, and costs the taxpayers less money. Utah government is a prime example, recognized as the Best Managed State in the nation.
