A matter of state's rights

State's rights are a fundamental cornerstone of this nation's structure. Indeed, our Civil War was fought over disagreement on that subject [the then Federal Government worked, with significant success, to change the focus to a "war on slavery," which was only an element of the fundamental, state's rights issue]

Today, we stand on the threshold of another state's rights problem: One that could, if not very skillfully managed, drive our nation deeper into economic depression; possibly even tearing these United States apart.

Although at least a half-dozen states are now apparently essentially bankrupt, only the land of "la-la" (California, Hillary) is clearly, and deeply, dug into that self-inflicted fiscal dump. What happens there, and in similarly troubled states such as Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, depends upon how the Obama administration, and the Democrat-controlled Congress react to California's theatrical pleas for help.

States have, among many other "rights," that associated with taxing businesses and residents, and then deciding how to spend those usually poorly managed funds. California (arguably the most liberal state in this now shaky union) has "managed" its budget so carelessly that they now admit to having a deficit of at least $26.3 billion. While the state's corrupt and/or incompetent lawmakers point limp-but-crooked fingers at each other, you can rest assured that they will soon ask for billions in federal funds, similar to those recently and casually thrown at irresponsible financial institutions and automobile makers. To offer California even a penny would clearly be an especially irresponsible action by Washington. It is not a function of our central government to intervene in a state's finances: If states screw up, they need to fix it by themselves. Not only do they need to be taught a hard lesson in fiscal responsibility, but the nation can ill afford setting a precedent, in which all 50 states might receive proportionate handouts. By one estimate, sending freshly printed (and increasingly worthless) money to every state would add over a trillion dollars to our already overwhelming national debt. Such reckless fiscal policy would also seriously undermine state's rights, by placing them in debtor status to a federal government that is already gathering increasing influence of all aspects of life on these fruited plains.

Meanwhile, back in La-La Land, the spaced-out residents are violating the spirit, if not the letter, of federal laws about printing money, which is not a state's right. Only the Federal Government is allowed to create (i.e., "print" or "mint") new money (which the Obama group is doing with reckless abandon); nevertheless, California is, functionally, doing just that. "Money" is, literally, any medium used in free exchange of goods and services, and the IOUs being currently printed and issued by California (approximately 30,000 of them, valued at about $54 million) are being accepted by banks, which effectively turns them into increasingly devalued greenbacks. California has promised to pay banks 3.75 percent interest on redeemed IOUs, which, as you probably realize is about three times the going rate you and I currently get on our meager savings. In using convertible, interest-bearing IOUs to pay workers, California is, in effect, printing money, while further adding to its intolerable debt.

Not only should California be forced to cease printing money, but it should also be required to take drastic action to dig itself out of the self-inflicted financial mess it's in. It's a cherished state's right to manage its own financial house: it is also its "right" to benefit from, or suffer, the results of mismanagement.

Neither California, nor any other state, should receive financial bail-out. Yes, Washington made serious errors, and set dangerous precedents, by carelessly throwing billions at poorly run businesses, which should have been allowed to fail, but a half-dozen wrongs don't make a right, so let's stop printing more unbacked money to distribute recklessly, and do so NOW!

California must become the example in this developing state's rights and responsibilities situation: they need to make dramatic cuts in government spending; significantly raise taxes; and increase income through reasonably possible ventures, such as the unwisely avoided, offshore drilling for oil.

None of your dwindling savings, or mine, should be plundered by still further increases in federal taxes, so that those legally-stolen billions can be handed to a demonstrably irresponsible state government. Let California work its own way out of its self-created problem!