Considering the countless ways that Washington misuses our tax dollars, members of Congress and President Barack Obama apparently need constant reminders of the limits that the 10th Amendment to the Constitution places on the federal government.
The amendment states, “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.”
The meaning of that sentence is unmistakable: The federal government has some powers delegated to it by the Constitution, but Washington may not assume powers that the Constitution does not grant to the federal government.
The ceaseless violation of the 10th Amendment was apparent again in a recent discussion over funding for a youth center in Polk County. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is slated to give a grant and loan package of $350,000 to the Benton Boys & Girls Club for a new youth center.
We have no doubt that many organizations for youth do plenty of good, and deserve praise and financial support. But even if you scour the Constitution, you will find no indication that subsidizing a local organization for youth is among the “powers delegated” – explicitly or by implication – to the federal government. No such authorization exists.
Support for the organization should be at the state or local level, or from private contributions, but it should not come in the unconstitutional form of federal tax dollars.
That is especially true when our country is creaking under the weight of a $14.3 trillion debt – which is almost as large as the entire annual economic output of the United States.
We will never get our debt under control so long as Washington continues to spend money on things that the Constitution put off limits to the federal government.