Federalism and medical marijuana.
Federalism and alcohol
Attitudes toward government waste
Professor Darrell West in The Politico:
Attitudes toward government waste
Professor Darrell West in The Politico:
"Opt-out” has become the most powerful phrase in the health care debate, thanks to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to include it in Senate legislation. When elected officials were searching for votes last week in favor of a filibuster-proof public option and appeared to come up short, Democratic Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware and Chuck Schumer of New York promoted the novel idea of a state-level “opt-out.” If particular jurisdictions do not like a public option, they simply can exit the government health insurance system for uninsured residents.
It is a very American idea. Our founders established the notion of federalism to allow states that felt strongly about public policy to operate under different laws and procedures. Currently, states have broad latitude to set their own rules in areas such as insurance, education and welfare. Indeed, state-level differences are so widespread that the late University of Chicago Professor Morton Grodzins described America as having a “marble cake” federalism with complex textures and contradictory policies ...
But there are serious logistical questions in terms of implementation. How do states opt out? Must state legislatures decide or can they use public referenda to allow voters to make the decision?
...
From a governance standpoint, the public option creates a worrisome precedent for other policy areas. If states don’t like congressional decisions on gun control, climate change or immigration, will state legislators demand an opt-out? If this were 1965 and there were a Medicare opt-out, it is conceivable we would have ended up with two-thirds of the country having Medicare, while one-third did not.
With any comprehensive reform, there always are unanticipated consequences. [emphasis added]
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