Is Congress' policy of obstruction at any cost undermining federalism?
Clearly the Republican Party has little interest in federal legislation or federal policy, save a few hot button issues for their increasingly extremist base. Yet, they seem more than willing to abdicate established federal responsibility for national programs to the states, individually. And willing to cede a national, shared sense of Constitutional standards, a national shared responsibility for those standards to a patchwork of State legislation.
It's a mixed bag, at times, for a progressive agenda. We win a few and lose more than a few at the State level. Yet we're losing the long run if we acquiesce to dismantling a broad federal agenda. We all lose in that scenario.
Right wing extremists have focused well on State legislation while their Congressional counterparts have enabled the effort through gridlock, obstruction and rhetorical face time in the press. i.e., Congress has done nothing save bailing on their federal responsibility. "Let the States handle it" has become a mantra from the right.
So, we're left with the Supreme Court as a Constitutional firewall. Another mixed bag of late, yet one we need.
And, of course, the Presidential veto if necessary.
Beyond the purely political, there's the practical. Infrastructure funding (read jobs), veterans' benefits (read health care and family support) are only two of the issues the House left on the floor when they chose to bail out last week. This is totally unacceptable, imo.
I love the line I heard here recently - "If you're so opposed to government why are you running for government office?"
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