Cord Byrd: “so what we are actually doing is walking away from these responsibilities at the Federal level and relegating them to…”

“so what we are actually doing is walking away from these responsibilities at the Federal level and relegating them to the States and counties and municipal governments. Some would say, ``Yahoo, get the Federal Government off our backs.'' That is the standard talk show answer. But let us give that a little more thought. With the passage of this balanced budget amendment, we will actually be shifting traditional Federal responsibilities, many of them, to the States and to the State houses. We will be creating a patchwork quilt of a nation with some States able to meet the increased responsibilities dumped on them by the Federal Government's withdrawal of funds due to steep budget cuts and other States not being able to do so. We will have some States with enormous unemployment, some States with extremely dilapidated and deplorable transportation systems, some States booming, maybe, and others busting. Do we want that result? I hear the Governors boasting of having cut taxes. I heard some of that last night. They are cutting taxes at the State level. And they have further tax cuts planned. Just wait until this constitutional amendment goes into effect. Those Governors will not cut taxes anymore. They will have to increase taxes because much of the burden is going to be dumped on them from the Federal Government. We will have trickle- down mandates. The Federal Government will offload the problems on the State governments.”