extortion

I am so fucking sick of the federal government right now. The latest news: States must set new BAC limit for drunk driving or lose federal highway funds. Highway funds that should be the State’s responsibility to collect. But the states can’t collect that, because the federal government is already killing everyone with outrageous taxes to begin with. The result? Extortion. How can this shit be legal?

Make this a law or you will lose money which should be yours anyway?

Fucking pisses me off.

Done ranting now.

There is already precedent for this, as the Feds used a similar tactic to force states to go along with the national 55mph speed limit imposed during the '73 oil crisis. While I think the double nickel was utterly stupid (and don’t get me started on other federally-mandated doodads like 5MPH bumpers and airbags), I’m not so sure I’d care to condemn lower limits for alcohol. European countries have generally been enforcing much lower limits than in the USA in recetn years. Of course, many European countries continue to have much higher accident and fatality rates as well (although I’m not sure how much drunken driving is involved), so go figure.

However, the Constitution, IMO, does not give the federal government the power to regulate such things without stretching the “commerce clause” to ridiculous proportions. Same with the speed limit and the drinking age. Thus, the federal government figures out ways around our Constitutional protections. Similar story with the War on Drugs.

I know the “slippery slope” argument is not valid in itself, but the federal government does seem to always expand to slightly overfill its bounds every time they are loosened. Maybe it will be ssatisfied at some point, but history is not abounding with examples of any government restraining itself from achieving more power.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I support tougher DWI laws. But this is rediculous. It’s a gorss abuse of power in an area where the federal government has no business being. These issues are why we still have individual states. In a country this size, each state knows how to best deal with these issues. I really hope there is a supreme court case about this type of thing soon.