Federalism

Federalism is defined as a system of government in which power is divided, by a constitution, between a central government and regional governments. This is the primes of States Rights and how many people feel that States Rights should over power federal laws. Federalism has also changed over the years to include Dual Federalism which stretches from the founding of our Government to the New Deal and Cooperative Federalism which has been the rule since the 1930’s. In Dual Federalism power is divided between the states and the Federal Government. Two of the Federal or National Governments responsibility during this time are money and war. Making sure a Dollar in Mississippi has the same value as a Dollar in California and defending the country are purely Federal to this day. State had the responsibility or education, public health, morality, licensees and criminal laws. With this kind of Federalism, the States had the most control of its people. With The Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt made the New Deal and with it changed how the National Government operated. It brought us Cooperative Federalism where the National Government encourages states and localities to pursue nationally defined goals. The National Government would give money to the states through a grant to encourage the states to act the way the National Government wanted them to.

Ronald Reagan began his Presidency with his election in 1980 after Jimmy Carter. He was a very stanch states rights activist along with being the prototype conservative.

He asserted the more Government wasn’t the solution but the problem. His main accomplishment came in 1981when he was responsible for lowering taxes by persuading congress to drop the top tax rate from 70% to 50% and reduced the overall marginal tax rate by 23%. In the 1986 congress went alot further with the tax reform act which lowered it to 25%. He was a believer in “ Trickle down economics” which meant that he would lower taxes on the rich so they could produce more jobs. It also implies that since people are going to be able to keep more of their money that they would in turn work harder. While cutting taxes would mean that Government spending should go down since they are not getting money to spend, that would not be the case because Reagan was also very into expanding the military which in turn saw the National Debt balloon to $2.7 trillion. During this time he took a strong stance against Russia, calling them and “ Evil Empire” , some say that he increased our military so rapidly that Russia went bankrupt trying to keep up. The highlight came when he created the Strategic Defense Initiative, AKA “Star Wars”, which was a series of space based missiles and lasers used to shoot down Soviet missiles out of the sky. It was an ok idea but it would have violated the 1972 Anti-Ballistic missile treaty. Also during the a union strike of flight control operators Reagan fired 11,000 workers because they didn’t return to work establishing that he did not like unions. But during the tax cuts and deregulation of the time several hospitals for the mentally handicapped shut down leaving them in the streets while also starting the gradual gap in wages from the top 1% and the rest of America that we see today. Its is good to noted that in today’s political climate he would be see as a solid moderate by not attacking abortion, ending the Cold War and putting the first women in a supreme court seat. He set a standard for future Conservatives in how they should deregulate the National Government and give that power to the States.

Block Grants is the event when the Federal Government gives a set amount of money to the states to use for any and all programs they see fit. The state has the ability to use this money in anyway it wants but if the National Government doesn’t like the use f the money they could always lessen the amount of money they give the state until the state folds and does what the National Government wants. While Categorical Grants are financial aid given to local and state governments for only specific motives like to help fight poverty or health care. There are two types of Categorical Grants however, Formula and Project Grants. In Formula Grants the state gets aid based on a mathematical formula and is typically determined by how much poverty is in the state. Project Grants however require states to send in a proposal in order to get money and compete with other states for a limited pool of resources. Now both of these Grants are run by money but the National Government also runs under something called Regulated Federalism, which is where the National Government sets up Regulations and Rules that the state must. These can include but are not limited to Civil Rights, EPA Regulations, and the rules set up by the Americans with Disabilities act.

The recent Federal and state budget is currently trying to limit the government influence in favor of spending that money on the military. At current Trump is trying to propose a $574 billion budget in 2018 for the Department of Defense. He is planning on taking this money from things like Environmental efforts, NASA, and Energy. He is currently calling this a “ Skinny Budget” in which everything is getting cut but the military. At a when the Non-Defense Discretionary Spending is at its lowest in fifteen years we can only hope that things get better from here.

The budget cut is also impacting Health-care. The Trump administration proposed an 18 percent decrease for HHS, one of the largest and most sprawling departments within the government. That sum excludes funding for the insurance provided by Medicare and Medicaid, two vast entitlement programs for older and lower-income Americans. In a rare move, those programs were omitted from the brief budget description the Trump administration has released. Decreases funding for the National Institutes of Health and certain programs to train health professionals. Increases funding for efforts to prevent and treat opioid addictions. The HHS is going to take a 18% decrease, the 18 percent cut would affect the billions of dollars NIH gives out to researchers around the globe, as well as studies at its sprawling Bethesda, Md., campus. This also eliminates the Fogarty International Center, which builds partnerships between U.S. and foreign health research institutions.

The Education Department faces a 14 percent cut under the Trump administration budget, which would downsize or eliminate a raft of grants, including for teacher training, afterschool programs, and aid to low-income and minority college students. The cuts would be coupled with a historic investment — $1.4 billion — in charter schools, private schools and other school-choice initiatives. Cuts $3.7 billion in grants for teacher training, after-school and summer programs, and aid programs to first-generation and low-income students. It also does the following, “Significantly” reduces federal work-study aid to college students, Increases charter school funding by $168 million,Creates new private-school choice program with $250 million, and It spends $1 billion to encourage districts to allow federal dollars meant for low-income students to follow those students to the public school of their choice.

I have been positively impacted by the military spending being a veteran because the VA gets more money to help veterans. The VA has been heavily under funded for a long time, leaving many vets on the street with massive health-care concerns. Education and Health-care are where I get impacted negatively by the current budget cuts as well as most American Citizens. These cuts will greatly keep the poor and sickly, poor and sickly with no options to get them out of their situations. These budget cuts are unnecessary or morally correct.