Federalism Amendment?

I just read this article from the Wall Street Journal on the wisdom of seeking a Federalism Amendment to specifically define federal and state powers. If you know me, you know I think this is long overdue.

The combination of the current economic crisis, the multi-trillion-dollar bailouts and government guarantees, a long history of unfunded federal mandates on the states, the economic parameters of Obama's $787 billion "stimulus" for the states, the proposed changes in tax laws, recently released reports from both the Missouri Information Analysis Center and Department of Homeland Security warning law enforcement agencies of the threats posed by those who question federal primacy, and the election of a Democrat president and Democrat supermajority Congress have come together to ignite quite a bit of anti-central government furor, for better or worse. No matter what the reasons are or what foolishness the excesses and grandstanding may bring about, the thing I like about this situation is this: due to economics alone, the United States will soon be forced to revisit, refine, and perhaps redefine the relationship of state versus federal primacy in governance.

If you are an American and have not read the Constitution and its Amendments (as most Americans have not), take an hour and give it a read sometime. If you read it you will discover how far we've moved away from it as a nation, even though it is supposedly our government's guiding and enforcing document. It is a pretty impressive work, one that we would do well to follow more closely, but it is not perfect—it left many loopholes for the unscrupulous and the power-hungry to find. The proposed Federalism Amendment would remedy many of those ills, and perhaps the national dialogue its formal proposal would engender would benefit us all.