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Downsizing Washington, Part 2

The effects on governance and individual freedom in America of Washington’s growing dominance of domestic program spending has not been beneficial. Josh Eboch, writing for the Tenth Amendment Center   explains that State obsequiousness to central authority in exchange for federal tax dollars has resulted in significant loss of individual freedom over the years.

Leaving aside the vital issue of Constitutionality, did Washington’s intervention in matters legally left to the states produce positive results? David Muhlhausen, Ph.D, writing for the Heritage Foundation,, found that the answer was no.

“Missing almost completely from debates over federal funding levels is any discussion of whether the programs being bankrolled actually achieve their stated goals. American taxpayers deserve better…One sensible approach to effectively allocating tax dollars is what is known as evidence-based policymaking. Evidence-based policymaking would use scientifically rigorous evaluations of government programs to inform decision-making. Unfortunately, policymakers rarely base their funding decisions on real evidence of effectiveness. The federal government has spent decades trying to improve the earnings of low-income individuals through various employment and training programs, but the Government Accountability Office has concluded that there is little evidence indicating that any of them actually work. It’s been estimated that only about one percent of federal non-defense discretionary spending is backed by any evidence of effectiveness. Clearly, very few federal programs have been evaluated to determine how well they’re working—or if they’re working at all.”

The American people have noticed the negative results.

The CATO Institutes’  Roger Pilon, testifying  before the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations, Committee on the Government Reform and Oversight in 1995 stated:
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“the people and the states no longer trust Washington not simply because Washington has been doing a less than satisfactory job but, more deeply, because Washington has assumed a vast array of regulatory and redistributive powers that were never its to assume—not, that is, if we take the Constitution seriously. Thus, the question the people and the states are increasingly putting to Washington is simply this: By what authority do you rule us as you do?”

A 2012 Pew Research Center poll  reported that “Just a third of Americans have a favorable opinion of the federal government, the lowest positive rating in 15 years. Yet opinions about state and local governments remain favorable, on balance. As a result, the gap between favorable ratings of the federal government and state and local governments is wider than ever. Ten years ago, roughly two-thirds of Americans offered favorable assessments of all three levels of government: federal, state and local. But in the latest survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, conducted April 4-15, 2012 among 1,514 adults nationwide, the favorable rating for the federal government has fallen to just 33%; nearly twice as many (62%) have an unfavorable view.By contrast, ratings of state governments remain in positive territory, with 52% offering a favorable and 42% an unfavorable opinion of their state government. And local governments are viewed even more positively. By roughly two-to-one (61% to 31%) most Americans offer a favorable assessment of their local government.”

A 2016 Gallup poll  confirmed that finding. “A majority of Americans (55%) favor the theory of government that concentrates power in state governments, outnumbering the 37% who favor power concentrated in the federal government. The latest update of this question — asked only twice before, in 1936 and 1981 — is from a June 14-23 Gallup poll…”

The issue is primed to rise in prominence. The Dallas Morning News  reported last January that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is leading a call for a convention to “ wrest power from a federal government ‘run amok,’ noting that “If we are going to fight for, protect and hand on to the next generation, the freedom that [President] Reagan spoke of … then we have to take the lead to restore the rule of law in America.”