Issue Position: 10th Amendment & Local Control

Issue Position

The 10th Amendment states, "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." Unfortunately, we have sold our state's 10th Amendment rights to Washington one federal dollar at a time. From education, to roads, to health care, we have slowly eroded our ability to govern ourselves locally.We have given too much power to Washington. The Environmental Protection Agency is perhaps the most dangerous example. The federal takeover of air quality standards threatens to shut down power plants right here in East Texas. I will fight the EPA in an effort to restore environmental authority to Texas where it belongs.

Education is another example. Our schools and colleges should be free to operate under state and local supervision without federal interference. The U.S. Dept. of Education should be eliminated and federal education dollars returned to the states.

The government closest to the people governs best, as noted by Thomas Jefferson. It is time to push back against Washington, and stop chasing federal money. Federal dollars are not "free" and are adding to an immoral debt which burdens our children and grandchildren. Let's start cutting some of those federal strings and see if Texans can't do better.

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