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For Immediate Release
March 16, 2009
Contact: David Atkinson
(717) 787-6535

Smucker Says Protecting State Powers Crucial For Taxpayers

Pennsylvania is sending a much-needed message that federal officials must better respect the 10th Amendment, which reserves power to the states and to the people, according to Senator Lloyd Smucker.

"Through the combination of federal laws, regulations, and funding with strings attached, states are being handed mandates and coerced into actions that make it almost impossible to control budgetary costs or limit the reach of government.  Given the troubles in the economy, few people are focused on this problem, but when the public figures it out, their protests will be heard," Smucker said.

Critics commonly cite the federal No Child Left Behind Act as the most extensive intrusion into an area – education – that is historically a primary state responsibility.

"The necessity and the purpose for the 10th Amendment were clear.  The people and the writers of the Constitution were wary of a national government that was too strong.  Making sure that the decisionmaking powers of states are protected is essential to making our system work as intended," he stated.

"There is widespread concern that the federal stimulus package, while containing money desperately needed by state and communities, attempts to force too many policy choices that states have declined to make.  Pennsylvania taxpayers cannot afford to pay more and more for the "Washington knows best" philosophy all too evident at the national level," Smucker pointed out.

One prominent example is the money aimed at extending benefits to those who recently lost their jobs.  The dollars are tied to dramatic increases in benefits, which becomes a serious problem once the stimulus dollars run out, he noted.

The text of the 10th Amendment: 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.