Mitt Romney gets slammed for the Massachusetts health care program. Rick Perry brings on a firestorm of criticism for providing in-state tuition to illegal alien students in Texas. There’s something being missed here!
Somehow, when it comes to campaigning, to trying to win hearts and minds…and votes…most of the Republican presidential candidates seem to forget one extremely important constitutional concept: enumerated powers (Article 1, Section 8, Numbers 1-17) and the 10th Amendment, “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.”
Why is the representative from Wisconsin or the former senator from Pennsylvania telling the people of Massachusetts or Texas what they may or may not do? How different is that then the leftist-statist president telling the people of all 50 states what they must or must not do?
Gary Johnson has it right. Let the people of each state determine what it wants in health care, in educational policy, how it raises the funds needed to run their own state. The citizens of those states have the right to vote for a health care plan they want. They have the right to change their minds. And, they reserve the right to vote with their feet.
Maryland decided to implement a “millionaires tax” and they now are living with the results of that action. Millionaires either left the state or found a way to avoid paying the tax. Instead of bringing in extra money they saw tax payments by millionaires actually decline. Live and learn.
New Jersey has incredibly high property taxes and raised the sales tax. I voted with my feet. Sold the house and moved to Pennsylvania. Property taxes are 40 percent lower and the sales tax is one percent lower (and doesn’t apply to clothing).
Yes, the underwater houses and the difficulty in getting a mortgage make picking up and relocating difficult. But, it certainly isn’t as difficult and leaving the country when it’s a national law or tax you’re trying to escape. Besides, where would you go? To Greece?
If the voters in California want to continue to elect people who are profligate with their money, who want to impose ridiculous regulations on every aspect of their lives that is there choice. My choice is to avoid living there and contributing to an atmosphere I don’t agree with. If New York wants to tell me what I can eat when I go into a restaurant in that city then I’ll make the choice whether I patronize the eateries there.
You’re either a Constitutional Conservative who believes in limited government and states rights or you’re just a statist of a different stripe.
Principles are principles. Forget conservative principles and you will hand the 2012 election to Obama just as we did in 2008. The choice is ours…as it ought to be.
