Politicians, bureaucrats and all departments that comprise local governments love grants or their favorite term, “free money.”  Their perception is that without the “free money,” Mississippi will simply fold and disappear.  Any opposition must suffer the overused rationale to promote the wisdom of begging the feds for grants; “it’s used for good purposes,” and “if we don’t take it, someone else will.” It is never mentioned that accepting federal funds prevents the states from protecting future generations from the crushing federal debt.  State and local governments quietly voice their concern about the federal government’s wasteful spending and intervention into state affairs but never offer any resistance to the constitutional abuse.

They feign opposition but refuse to take action.  They understand opposing their federal masters too heavily will result in a smaller slice of the federal pie.

For this reason, state governments refuse to exercise their supremacy and halt the fed’s wasteful and unconstitutional spending. Failure to act guarantees the Beltway big spenders will never face a serious challenge from state governments.

As long as we send our money to D.C. and then beg for portions back including the dictates, surveillance state, police state and other liberty-robbing mandates, we’ll never break free from the feds.  State and local governments have been reduced to beggars and are totally submissive to the whims, opinions and socialist policies of the millionaire criminal-class that inhabit Washington.

My point is not to debate whether accepting federal grants to maintain or expand the present level of spending of state and local governments is sensible or not.  It’s to emphasize the fact that accepting money from the feds does have unintended consequences. It has created a situation that prevents us from changing the dangerous direction the country has taken.  Restricting the debate to the idea that grants are necessary and legal, it’s impossible to correct a situation that is aiding the destruction of America.

Some will always criticize not accepting funds, but accepting a few million in exchange for ignoring both political parties charging trillions to our grandchildren is not a fair deal.  This being the case, I don’t believe they can win the debate.

The framers warned us of this.  They knew the government they created would soon begin to expand their power and control.  In their writings, they expected the states to keep a suspicious eye on the government and prevent its expansion, but we didn’t listen, and now we are the servants and the feds are our master.

Future generations will be better served if we stopped the endless verbal sparring about what we have or wouldn’t have without federal funds.  We should focus our energy and ideas toward developing a plan to stop sending our money to Washington and end the immoral and criminal cycle that piles trillions of dollars in debt on those too young understand and resist.We have abandoned our moral and constitutional duty to protect our grandchildren from a future of government created debt-slavery in exchange for the temptation of free money.

We should be ashamed.

By Jeff Smith