Brian Lamb, of C-SPAN, asked Morning Journal listeners, Do you believe in divided government, to which callers referred to either the Democrats vs Republicans or Congress vs the Administration.
No one interpreted the question as checks and balances of State governments vs DC. The powerful rules of the Senate were originally written to keep the US citizens from gaining direct control of DC. After all, "The tyranny of 50 percent + 1 of a voting populace is no more moral than the tyranny of an autocrat".
No one interpreted the question as checks and balances of State governments vs DC. The powerful rules of the Senate were originally written to keep the US citizens from gaining direct control of DC. After all, "The tyranny of 50 percent + 1 of a voting populace is no more moral than the tyranny of an autocrat".
The citizens are represented by the House of Representatives, hence the name but Senators were selected to represent the State government. That changed in 1913 when the 17th amendment required the popular election of Senators, as well as Representatives, turning them both into representatives of the People and adding unlimited financial power with the 16th amendment -the Income Tax.
Today no one represents the State governments in DC. And today Jefferson's words to Charles Hammond in 1821 have come to pass "When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one [State] government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.
"With no State government representative to protect the States from mandates, funded or un-funded, DC now controls everything from the water in your toilet to the standing water on your farm. And using direct taxation of the citizens, DC has unlimited money and power. Abuse after abuse is now commonplace in DC, just the latest of which is the Smithsonian overspending and the starvation of animals at the National Zoo. Think of this on April 15th.
"With no State government representative to protect the States from mandates, funded or un-funded, DC now controls everything from the water in your toilet to the standing water on your farm. And using direct taxation of the citizens, DC has unlimited money and power. Abuse after abuse is now commonplace in DC, just the latest of which is the Smithsonian overspending and the starvation of animals at the National Zoo. Think of this on April 15th.
And I'm inspired to ask, if Nebraskans do replace our Unicameral with two houses, could the funding for the State come from the counties and the Senators be appointed by the County governments or would both bodies be popularly elected? One would think the local bodies would make choices closer to the people if they controlled the purse strings. Listen up Nebraskans outside the Omaha area.
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