How the 17th Amendment Killed the 10th
The 10th amendment says “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.” (Italics added)
The Legislative branch was set up with two separate bodies. The House of Representatives was designed to represent the people and they were elected by the people. The Senate was to represent the states and they were elected by the legislature of each respective state. This way the Senate could defend the rights of the states and hold the federal government’s power in check.
The 17th amendment (ratified in 1913) stipulates the Senate to be voted in by the people instead of by the state legislatures. Since then we have seen the powers of the federal government grow tremendously, leaving the states weaker and weaker. The federal government has created huge bureaucracies to deal with issues they are not constitutionally authorized to and therefore should be reserved to the states. The Departments of Health & Human Services (1953), Energy (1977), Education (1979), and Housing & Urban Development (1965) were all created after the ratification of the 17th amendment and are all unconstitutional according to the 10th amendment. The combined annual budget of these 4 departments is $762 BILLION.
The reason I did this post is because I believe the vetting question at the top of the list for our candidates for Senate should be Are you committed to restoring states’ rights as guaranteed in the 10th amendment and what are you going to do to accomplish it?
The Republicans running against Senator Bennett for his seat are: Mark Shurtleff, Cherilyn Eagar, Tim Bridgewater, and James Russell Williams. The only Democrat I know of so far is Sam Granato.
