Quote of the Day: "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

Subject: Your state belongs to the feds

For the first time ever federal aid now funds the majority of state government spending.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

* Government was supposed to be local, close to the people
* Federal government was supposed to be small compared to the combined states
* The 10th Amendment limits the federal government to 20 functions, leaving all other matters to the states and the people. To see the list of these functions, go to DownsizeDC.org's Enumerated Powers Act campaign
Then, click on the "Talking Points" tab.

It's bad enough that Congress has exceeded its constitutional limits. It's potentially worse that they now fund the majority of state spending too. Funding usually means control, so the consequences are huge . . .

* Federal control is usually dictated by bureaucrats, not your elected representatives
* These bureaucrats often use federal aid to "bribe" your local governments to do things they would prefer to NOT do

But it gets worse. Many states require a balanced budget. Federal funding allows states to skirt these limits. Essentially, because the feds are always running huge deficits, the states are getting the federal government to do their borrowing for them.

Worst of all, federal funding centralizes decision making, magnifying the harm caused by bad policies. Bad laws in California don't impact Arizona, but mistakes made by federal politicians harm everyone. And boy, Congress sure makes a lot of mistakes. For instance . . .

* A poorly written federal law regulating lead content in products has had vast, unintended consequences, removing safe products from the shelves, threatening small businesses with bankruptcy, and raising costs for low income families.
* And just last week, in our Dispatch "Congress could mess up a train wreck," we told you about a federal law that has led the paper industry to use more fossil fuels, even though the law's supposed purpose was to use less

These are hardly isolated examples. We could go on for pages listing others. And the more our government centralizes at the federal level, the more numerous and dangerous the examples will become.

Now, we say this mainly for the benefit of our many new members . . .

You aren't going to change this by electing new politicians. The trend toward centralized government has continued no matter whom you've elected. Democrats and Republicans are both responsible, in EQUAL measure. Neither will you change things with isolated efforts, like now-you-see-it, now-you-don't protests. Instead . . .

We must pressure Congress in a relentless, overwhelming, direct way. Achieving this will require . . .

* The recruitment of a huge army capable of making its voice heard by everyone, everywhere, every day.
* The commitment to pound, pound, pound Congress into submission

We'll use many tools to achieve these goals, but all it takes today is a few keyboard strokes and mouse clicks. Please use our quick and easy Educate the Powerful System to send your Congressional employees a message telling them to cut federal spending.

Use your personal comments to specifically object to the fact that federal aid now funds the majority of state government spending. Tell them this violates the 10th Amendment.

We want to pound Congress with more than the 31,730 messages we sent in April. This means we need to send at least 1,601 messages today. You can send your message at DownsizeDC.org's "cut spending" campaign page.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army. To see how much we're growing please check out the Keeping Score report below my signature.

Jim Babka
President, DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

Keeping Score

You can't change the government by yourself. You'll need a huge "army" to help you. That means these numbers must grow constantly . . .

The Downsize DC Army now stands at 25,199. It's grown by 850 net new members so far this year, and 40 net new members since our Friday report. We've gone nearly 20% of the way to 26,000 in the last week, whereas previously it took us 176 days to get from 24k to 25k. The Army's growth is accelerating!

YOU can make the army grow even faster by following our quick and easy instructions for personalized recruiting.

We can also grow faster by mailing recruitment letters to potential DC Downsizers. If you can start a monthly credit card pledge to help make this happen please let us know on the secure contribution form if its okay to publish your name here . . .

NEW MONTHLY PLEDGERS IN MAY: Nancy Kovar, Ryan Ackroyd, WM Michael O'Brien, John C Houghton, James Alan Speedie, ONE unlisted

Or, if you'd prefer to make a one-time donation please let us know if its okay to publish your name here . . .

NEW ONE TIME DONORS IN MAY: Ernest P. Eusea, Chris Reulman, David Anthony, Christopher T Wagner, Thomas Sartwelle, Jr, THREE unlisted