Task Force Seeks to Restore Constitutional Balance of Power Through Federalism

   WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Today, Representative Tom McClintock (R-Granite Bay) joined Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Tom Price (R-GA), Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT) and nine other Republican Members of Congress to officially launch the newly formed 10th Amendment Task Force, a project of the RSC.  The Task Force will develop and promote proposals that aim to disperse power, decision-making, and money from Washington back to states, local governments, and individuals. 

   The Task Force was created in response to the concentration of power and the one-size-fits-all solutions from Washington.  Representative McClintock made the following remarks at today’s press conference:

   “I believe that it can be stated as a universal maxim that the failures of our government can be traced to a single cause: the abandonment of federalism.

   “The tenth Amendment was not written to protect states rights.  Experience has shown that state governments can be just as abusive of their authority as any other government.

    “The tenth Amendment is rather about dividing governmental authority to limit the abuse of power that naturally occurs when it accumulates into too few hands. 
  
    “The Founders knew that the ultimate check upon an abusive or dysfunctional government is the ability of people to walk away from it.  By limiting the federal government to those enumerated powers that serve a truly national objective, our Constitution disperses the remaining powers among 50 states and a hundred fold more communities.
  
     “Those states that are governed unwisely naturally lose population and commerce and revenues to those that are governed well.  It is a self-correcting mechanism.

      “In 1821, Jefferson warned that "When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."

       “We have reached that point, and the time has come to restore the genius of the American founding by restoring those principles of federalism that are the foundation of our freedom and the natural ramparts that protect us against both folly and despotism. 
 
       “I can’t imagine more important work than that which this task force now sets out to do.”