Monday, May 15, 2006

Liberals for States' Rights

Here's some food for thought:

States' Rights -- for the Right Ideas:


"Liberals and Democrats in search of new ideas might surprise everyone by embracing the cause of states' rights.

No, that doesn't mean abandoning federal enforcement of civil rights, or environmental or worker safety statutes. That old states' rights idea should stay dead.

The new states' rights means enhancing the ability of states to solve problems that our current federal government won't confront. These days the real opponents of allowing our 50 laboratories of democracy to step up are conservatives who fear the power grass-roots progressives can wield at the state level.

Contrast this week in our nation's capital with the week in Boston, capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Congress was solving the enormously important problem of making sure that wealthy Americans can continue to pay low taxes on their dividends and capital gains.

In Boston, legislators were completing work on a remarkable law that -- if it works -- will provide health coverage for almost all of the state's residents. The bill passed overwhelmingly last month in the Democratic-controlled legislature and was signed into law by Republican Gov. Mitt Romney. This week the legislature was dealing with Romney's vetoes of a few of the bill's provisions. . ."

No comments: