Local governments should be allowed to govern free of federal interference.

Local governments should be allowed to govern free of federal interference.

8:50- 9:20

The government’s sole responsibility is to maintain order in society. Since the beginnings of the United States, citizens have been following the greatest law in the land, The Constitution. The Constitution has laid out specific rules and regulations in all aspects of governance. The most important parts of the Constitution deal with governance of people, rules to follow in daily activities, selection factors for government officials and most importantly the freedoms that citizens are entitled to. Despite federal government’s authority over local governments in most cases, there are times when the local government has the right to govern without federal interference.

First consider specific situations in which the local government has complete authority over. In most states, local governments are responsible to make their own laws regarding controversial issues such as, death penalty, casinos, business expansion, gay marriage, and minimum wage.  In many states these controversial issues take different positions based on their heritage. In many northern and coastal states, who are very conservative tend to be more stringent on rules than southern states. For instance, in the states of New Jersey and Oregon it is illegal to pump gas by yourself however in every other state in the country it is a common practice to do so. This is because in New Jersey and Oregon a law was passed in 1949 that prohibits citizens to pump their own gasoline. It was assumed that it was too dangerous for an untrained individual to handle gasoline. The primary reason for this was that a man pumping his gas in the 1950s accidentally was incinerated and died from mishandling gasoline. This law is very specific to the state and it is cases like these that local governments should be allowed to govern free of federal interference. Also minimum wage is also variable because each state varies due to the types of businesses present and cost of living. For example, in the state of Maine the minimum wage is $7.25 but in California it is $9.30. This is because of the high cost of living in California compared to Maine. A nation is made up of many individual regions. What apply to one region might not apply to another simply because; environment of the regions are different.

Next consider specific situations in which the federal government has complete authority over. The federal government has complete responsibility to keep high safety standards, health standards, economic practices, education and war. For instance the FDA is responsible to keep the food chain and medicines safe from harming people. It reports to the people if there are any cases of food or drug contamination. For instance, there have been many cases of Mad cow disease from beef and Ecoli from spinach. Also in the outbreak of the Swine Flu and Avian flu the federal government issued vaccine assistance to the states to control further spread of the disease. authority over. Likewise, there are mandatory vaccination that people must take in order to go to school or work such as for small pox, tetanus, hepatitis and the flu vaccine. This is because the government view these illnesses as unnecessary onus for the people to face in daily operations. Another important implication from the government education standards. Due to the high competition from Asia, the Bush Admnistration issued the “No Child Left Behind Law” which was aimed to revamp the US educational system to meet the demands for the 21^st century job market. Also, the NHTA is responsible to keeping the public infrastructure such as roads, bridges, pipes and buildings as well cars under optimal condition to prevent accidents and harm to people. In order to do, the federal government establishes strict rules and standards that everyone must follow.

In all there should be a fine balance between federal and local governance. The local government should only have complete authority over controversial issues gay marriage, and minimum wage. However the federal government must interfere with local government in cases such as high safety standards, health standards, economic practices, education and war.