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States rights will be in the crosshairs soon enough. States that support public health, be that reproduction, vaccines, sex ed, weather, or simply just fact-ba
by sandworm101 2y ago
States rights will be in the crosshairs soon enough. States that support public health, be that reproduction, vaccines, sex ed, weather, or simply just fact-based research, could see thier federal funds dry up. States still need to biuld infrastructure, something that almost always taps federal funds. Everyone who works in science or research is afraid at the moment, irrespective of where they think their funding comes from.
I know a guy measuring tree growth, with an eye to whether tree planting is effective post-fire. Much of the study is on federal lands. He has no idea whether the project will still exist come spring.
- _heimdall 2y agoOnce the Republicans start going after state's rights the parties really will have fully flipped. Nothing wrong with that, it happens pretty often, but it is interesting to see play out in real time.
- mbostleman 2y agoI don’t think states rights is defined by whether they receive money from the federal government.
- _heimdall 2y agoThere is a history of federal funding drying up when states don't follow federal guidelines. Louisiana didn't have ant federal funding for roads for years because they were refusing to raise the drinking age from 18 to 21.
- mbostleman 2y agoI don't see how this addresses my point. State rights is the ability of a state to act on their own - not have unfettered access to federal funds.
- _heimdall 2y agoSure, but the GP you were replying to was focused on the risk of states losing federal funding and how that leverage is making many act differently in response.
- mindslight 2y agoWhen the federal government takes somewhere between 50% and 100% of the income tax payed by a state's citizens simply to give it back to the state with strings attached, that is a straightforward undermining of the state being able to act on its own. In general, it's amazing how reliably crypto-authoritarian points are prefixed with "I don't see how". It exploits our natural advantage to assume good faith and difficulty understanding, rather than a willful ignoring of coercion.