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U.S. Constitution and State Laws
The focus of this essay is on the U.S. Constitution and The Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights gives freedoms to the citizens of the United States, as well as allows the states within the United States to govern such issues such as welfare and disability. This essay will answer the following question: should the U.S. Constitution provide the states with more money to carry out social programs such as welfare and disability? This essay will also answer how would this effect the GDP?
The Bill of Rights states from The White House website below:
The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. Empowered with the sovereign authority of the people by the framers and the consent of the legislatures of the states, it is the source of all government powers, and also provides important limitations on the government that protect the fundamental rights of United States citizens (The White House, 2016).
The on-going debate of whether or not the federal government should increase the amount of funding to the states based on programs such as welfare is ongoing. As it stands right now, the states do receive some power in terms of the laws it can manage and govern in comparison to federal responsibilities. Brennan writes that the federal government should provide more money to the states so that they can properly fund programs such as welfare.
According to Kymlicka, he writes that the Bill of Rights was created with the people of the United States in mind. Kymlicka does not believe that the states should have too much power particularly when it comes to issues such as human rights as they relate to multiculturalism. We will now return to the focus of the essay or move from this transition to discuss the GDP and how the federal government giving more money to the states for programs such as welfare would affect the GDP.
As it stands the United States uses approximately 3% of its GDP for money towards funding the states. Currently this is an adequate amount. If the states feel that this amount is not adequate, the debate again surrounding funding should reach the petition stage in order for change to happen.
Conclusion
This essay has discussed the program of welfare in the United States, as well as the GDP amount of the United States that is spent on state funding.
Works Cited
Brennan Jr, William J. "State constitutions and the protection of individual rights."Harvard Law
Review(1977): 489-504.
Kymlicka, Will.Multicultural citizenship: A liberal theory of minority rights. Clarendon Press,
1995.
The White House. The Constitution. United States Government, 1791. Accessed on November 5,
2016.