Whatever Happened to Federalism?

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Unleash Prosperity Hotline
Issue #1180
01/13/2025
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1) Whatever Happened to Federalism?

Ok, everyone repeat after us:

"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."

That is, of course, the indispensable 10th Amendment and part of the Bill of Rights. It is now sometimes referred to as "the forgotten 10th amendment" because no one in Washington pays any attention to it.

Look what's happened since the start of the "progressive era," the New Deal, and then the modern welfare state of the 1960s. Power has continually shifted away from states and their localities to federal agencies. It used to be roughly two-thirds of government spending were done at the state-local levels. Now the ratio is nearly the reverse.

Almost everything Biden did in his ruinous four years in office expanded federal powers and treated states like subjects. And, voila: $2 trillion deficits across the horizon.

Trump should give back power to the states. Let them compete and serve as laboratories of democracy. This will lead to smaller and better government.
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2) The Idiocy of the Climate Change Brigades

Nothing emits more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and puts carcinogens into the air we breathe than forest fires.

And nothing has done more to destroy trees - which absorb carbon out of the atmosphere - than forest fires. The federal government spends tens of millions of dollars on tree planting programs.

However many green groups have opposed measures to contain and prevent forest fires.

In 2007 the Sierra Club successfully sued the U.S. Forest Service to prevent them from creating a Categorical Exclusion (CE) to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for controlled burns (the technical term is "fuel reduction"). This would have allowed officials to conduct burns without having to perform a full Environmental Impact Statement (the median time for which is 3.5 years). See Sierra Club v. Bosworth ([link removed]) .

The Trump Bureau of Land Management tried to implement a fire prevention plan but was served with a notice of intent to sue by the Center for Biological Diversity ([link removed]) .

The Biden BLM killed the plan, and the result (as they say) is both history - and hysteria.

GOP Congressman Tom McClintock reports:

"Between 2012 and 2021, we lost a quarter of California's forestland to wildfires. A UCLA study estimated that California's 2020 fires released twice as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as had been prevented by the previous 18 years of primarily government-enforced restrictions."

California is getting ready to ban gas cars. It would do the planet a much bigger favor if the Golden State banned forest fires. Or at least tried to!

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3) Unleash Prosperity's Chief Economist Casey Mulligan Tapped To Be Trump's Deregulation Czar

What are we? An Executive Branch job training program?

Another one of our ace senior team has been poached by President Trump. Mulligan will run the Office of Advocacy at the Small Business Administration, where he will assess the costs and benefits of federal rules on small businesses. If they're a net negative - as most are - they can be rescinded.

Casey has been scoring Biden regulations for UP ([link removed]) , and now he will wield an even bigger club! Our loss is the Trump administration's and America's small businesses gain.

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4) IRS Still Flunks Test of Keeping Americans' Confidential Tax Records Secret

A few weeks ago the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) issued a little-noticed report concluding that even in the aftermath of the Chaz Littlejohn scandal of thousands of stolen private tax returns, the agency STILL has no regard for the security of confidential taxpayer information.

The report found:

The IRS did not maintain secure bins as required for sensitive documents waiting to be destroyed. The IRS used open containers and bins with disposal slots that have been altered or were in poor condition, allowing access to discarded sensitive documents.

The IRS no longer performs on-site inspections at facilities where sensitive documents are brought for destruction to ensure proper disposal... trash containers being used for all waste, including sensitive documents that contained tax information and Personally Identifiable Information...

The use of these open trash containers exposes sensitive documents for anyone (employees, contractors, or visitors) to retrieve, which can cause a potential unauthorized access and disclosure incident. Once the trash leaves the IRS facility, it is possible someone could access sensitive information.

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Gee, this looks like air-tight security. This would be like a bank posting the combination for accessing the vault.

Thanks to the folks at Americans for Tax Reform for alerting us to this ongoing outrage. Maybe it's time to fire, not hire at the incompetent IRS.
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5) Football Is Meant to Be Played Outdoors

Congratulations to Notre Dame and Ohio State. They will play for the college football national championship next Monday night. (Will that get better TV ratings than Donald dancing with Melania?)

But the shame is that the game will be played in yet another ugly, dark, and antiseptic domed stadium in Atlanta. At least the Notre Dame vs. Penn State instant classic was played under the stars in Miami's Orange Bowl.

How is it that 100 years ago America built the most majestic football stadium of all time - the Rose Bowl - which is now hallowed ground, but the modern stadiums with 21st-century technology are as exciting and laden with historic memories as an Amazon warehouse? No wind, no snow, no sunlight, no moon, and in some cases no green grass - but at least there are million-dollar executive suites to be filled.

What's next? Putting a retractable roof over Augusta National or doming Wrigley Field?

Here's our idea: every year hence, play the national championship game outdoors in Pasadena.

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6) Wait! We Thought California Was Filled With Brilliant People

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