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Old 10-02-2013, 02:59 PM
 
9,659 posts, read 10,205,099 times
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To reduce the size of the federal governnment, we can eliminate, privatise, or hand over some functions to the states...


Can anyone care to name a few?
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:05 PM
 
Location: San Diego, CA
10,582 posts, read 9,756,582 times
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Well, you can start by picking out a government function, and then looking through the Constitution to see if it's named there.

If it isn't, then transfer it to the states. Or, you can look into amending the Constitution to include it as a Federal power, if you want. For example, airplanes hadn't been invented in 1789, so no Air Force is mentioned. But clearly the Framers would want this under the same government as the Army and Navy, so amending the Const to include it should be quick and easy.

Keep in mind that the so-called "welfare clause" from Article 1, Section 8, isn't a permission for the Fed to do anythig it wants that helps people. It's actually a restriction, saying that the Fed can spend money only on projects that benefit ALL Americans EQUALLY (that's what "General Welfare" meant, which was different from "Local Welfare" at the time). It's basically an Anti-Special-Interests clause.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:05 PM
 
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Everything but defense, treasury and minting money.

And defense should be severely limited.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:06 PM
 
Location: Barrington
63,919 posts, read 46,545,277 times
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I often tend to favor the economies of scale of federal solutions.

For example; having 50 politically appointed insurance commissions making law, is insanity.

The state fiefdoms, redundancies and conflicts hit us all in the pocket book at a local level.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:07 PM
 
1,614 posts, read 2,066,181 times
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Not a whole lot, technology and general societal advancement mean that a whole lot of things should be regulated on the national level.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:08 PM
 
Location: Barrington
63,919 posts, read 46,545,277 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Little-Acorn View Post
Keep in mind that the so-called "welfare clause" from Article 1, Section 8, isn't a permission for the Fed to do anythig it wants that helps people. It's actually a restriction, saying that the Fed can spend money only on projects that benefit ALL Americans EQUALLY (that's what "General Welfare" meant, which was different from "Local Welfare" at the time). It's basically an Anti-Special-Interests clause.
^ one interpretation.

No federal, state, county or municipal law benefits all, equally.

Does that mean, all laws should be abolished?
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:08 PM
 
Location: Lost in Texas
9,827 posts, read 6,915,750 times
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It's clearly spelled out in the constitution. Everything else is a bastardization of it.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:13 PM
 
14,293 posts, read 9,647,311 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHurricaneKid View Post
To reduce the size of the federal governnment, we can eliminate, privatise, or hand over some functions to the states...


Can anyone care to name a few?
The entire Department of Education, Department of Highways just to name two.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:16 PM
 
Location: Pa
20,300 posts, read 22,169,185 times
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Many of the Fed Functions can and should be scaled back. Every state has their own version of the EPA. Dept of Education. Drug enforcement etc.
The question begs why do we need a multitude of law enforcement agencies?
ATF, DEA, FBI, Secret Service, US Marshalls etc.
The military can and should be downsized as should the missions we assign our armed forces that absolutely nothing to do with the defense of this Nation.
There is enough fat to trim that we could spend months trimming and barely scratch the surface.
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Old 10-02-2013, 03:17 PM
 
Location: Montgomery Village
4,112 posts, read 4,463,053 times
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Here's a question to answer your question: If the founding fathers saw how vast and complex our country and society in general has gotten, how different would the Constitution be if they wrote it today? (This is purely hypothetical of course)
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