Federalism FTW?

Turns out, Democrats don’t think the federal government is worth a damn under George W. Bush or President Obama, but they still want it getting ever bigger and imposing its shoddy solutions on every conceivable problem from now until the end of time. Super. The percentage of Democrats expressing a favorable opinion of the federal [...]

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Reefer madness.

Colorado and Washington say it’s okay to use marijuana, the U.S. Congress says it isn’t. Federalism or criminalizing weed: Let’s settle now on one as a core GOP principle and let go of the other, because as marijuana legalization becomes more popular, one of them will have to give. “I don’t see the DOJ suing [...]

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Too much, too soon?

Earlier this year, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal promised to undertake the major task of simplifying the state’s tax code in the interests of promoting economic competition, business friendliness, and job growth; and last month, he unveiled his plan to get rid of income and corporate taxes in favor of a sales tax increase from 4 [...]

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Federalism.

…None other than the legislative haunt of Gov. Andrew “confiscation could be an option” Cuomo and loathsome nanny-state Mayor Bloomberg, of course. George Mason University’s Mercatus Center just released the third edition of their comprehensive “Freedom in the Fifty States” study, ranking “the American states based on how their policies promote freedom in the fiscal, [...]

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Bold.

President Obama and the Democrats have been talking a big game about closing loopholes on “the wealthy,” “big oil companies,” “corporate jet owners” and all manner of greedy societal bottom-feeders (or something) as an ostensible method of (ever-so-slightly) reducing our budget deficit, and it isn’t that Republicans are so very opposed to the idea of [...]

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Compromise.

This isn’t news because it’s novel for a Paul to be saying such things — his dad once called for getting the government out of marriage on a GOP presidential primary debate stage — but because of Paul’s growing prominence in the GOP. If he could rally a hawkish party to oppose the president’s power [...]

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No labels.

Huntsman endorsing gay marriage is like Karl Rove’s new group endorsing a candidate in a GOP primary. Given the suspicion and disdain with which most grassroots conservatives regard them, it’s practically an anti-endorsement. It’s like a neon sign flashing “HERE THERE BE RINOS.” I do agree with him on the merits about legalizing SSM but [...]

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"Freedom means freedom for everyone."

Something new from the Respect for Marriage Coalition keyed to their splashy new poll about same-sex marriage. Want evidence of how much the phrasing of poll questions can influence the responses you get? Here you go: Voters express strong support for the notion that the ability to marry the person you love is a fundamental [...]

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Oof.

California’s currently super-liberal state government has been eight different kinds of excited about what they projected was going to come in as a budget surplus, exclaiming about how they’ve managed to buck the longtime trend of overspending and proving the haters wrong: “Right now, in the next four years, we’re talking about a balanced budget. [...]

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Federalism and fluids.

While President Obama is more than happy to impose one-size-fits-all, top-down regulations from the federal level on down when it comes to energy production (and just about everything else for that matter, ugh), state governments are the more efficient stewards of their own interests — fiscal, economic, and environmental. States are more than capable and [...]

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Oh my.

Via Reason, a big deal potentially for two reasons. One: It’s not unusual for a candidate who identifies predominantly as a libertarian, like Gary Johnson, to endorse legalization. It is unusual for a guy who’s more closely associated with mainstream conservatism, albeit of the tea-party wing, to signal he’s keeping an open mind. As I [...]

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Shots fired.

I love federalism. Which is to say, really, that I love competition. When states, like businesses, compete for their desired goals in a free-market scenario, everybody wins in the long run, because the policies that really work and appeal to the most people will come out on top. Texas and California are often compared as [...]

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Federalism.

The states are already beginning to play out the battle between the “fewer guns means less crime” and “more guns means less crime” mentalities, and while Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a bill that would have allowed for concealed carry in schools earlier this week, states like Virginia and Texas are starting to think the [...]

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Federalism.

The obligatory follow-up to Friday’s post wondering why Obama would want to sic the DOJ on weed users in Washington and Colorado when both states just voted to legalize it. Per Gallup, most Americans are wondering that too. On the underlying legalization question: My point on Friday was that the federalism angle gives the GOP [...]

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Trial balloon.

Baffling, but leave it to O to pursue terrible big-government policies even in a rare case where his base would prefer a lighter federal touch. Congress says marijuana is dangerous and illegal, voters in Washington and Colorado say it isn’t. What’s a recently reelected pothead-turned-POTUS (who won both states) to do? Even as marijuana legalization [...]

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De facto federalism?

On November 6, Colorado and Washington State legalized the use of pot, becoming the first U.S. states to do so. Twenty days later, conservative comedian Steven Crowder launched a video outlining his opposition to marijuana legalization. And now, via FireDogLake, the Department of Transportation (DoT) is making sure the public knows it won’t tolerate workplace [...]

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School choice -- or the lack thereof.

Since his election, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has championed the cause of education reform by permitting more private-sector competition into the school system — the ire of the teachers’ unions be darned. One of his signature achievements, a private-school tuition voucher program that allows low-income children (those from families with a household income less than [...]

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Decisions.

Belated good news for those of you who were disappointed in gay marriage’s victories at the polls on election day: Those victories may have inadvertently saved the prohibitions on gay marriage in other states. For awhile, at least. Usually, the justices are inclined to vote to hear a case if they disagree with the lower [...]

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Experiments.

The federal government may be locked up in an extended state of bipartisan gridlock, but our fifty nifty United States have been moving towards clear-cut majorities not seen in these numbers in decades. The NYT summarizes the new situation: Come January, more than two-thirds of the states will be under single-party control, raising the prospect [...]

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Federalism.

Gigantic, top-down national bureaucracy continuously trying to do more things for more people, basically monopolizing government functions and hindering efficiency and innovation while accumulating monstrous amounts of debt? Bad idea. Individual states controlling more of their own respective destinies and competing for residents, thereby driving efficiency and innovation in policy decisions and management? Smart idea. [...]

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Not-so-little victories.

Even aside from the presidency, Republicans lost a good handful of races down the ticket last night — which of course means that the makeup of our federal government is going to just keep on keepin’ on for awhile  yet. If there isn’t much cheerful news to be found on the federal level, however, let’s [...]

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Debates.

On July 1st, a new state law went into effect in California banning the sale and production of foie gras. For those not inclined to exploring the sometimes unsavory truths behind perhaps unfamiliar culinary delicacies, foie gras is a traditional French food made out of the especially silky-textured livers of geese or ducks that have [...]

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Lies.

Remember, the fine print in his big “evolution” announcement a few weeks ago was that he was merely stating his personal opinion on SSM, not ushering in a new federal policy. Leave it to the states, he said, to handle this issue. But that too was a charade and I noted it at the time. [...]

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Quiet overreach.

It often happens this way when the federal government interferes with local and state affairs: What sounds reasonable — or even desirable — in theory proves to be expensive and ineffective in practice. So it is with national education standards, which — at first glance — might seem to be an advisable way to ensure [...]

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