Mike Lee: Federal Disaster Relief Is Unconstitutional (VIDEO)

Freshman Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) recently tallied a few more items on his growing list of government programs that he finds unconstitutional, saying that federal disaster relief, poverty nets and food-safety standards should all be left up to the states.

The latest chronicle of Lee's states'-rights musings were made this week in an interview with Utah public-radio host Doug Fabrizio, relayed by ThinkProgress:

LEE: The listener identifies an issue with flood and disaster relief--should that be a federal prerogative or is that a state power? I think a compelling point can be made that that's one thing that states historically have focused on...and I think that's one area where we ought to focus--one of many areas where we ought to focus -- on getting that power back to the states, keeping that money in the states to begin with.

FABRIZIO: But could Louisiana, for example, have dealt with Katrina? That would have absolutely broken the bank. Should the federal government, in an ideal way, should the federal government have been involved in that at all?

LEE: Well, look, they were, and I generally make a practice of not unnecessarily and futilely going back a few years and saying we shouldn't have done that because the fact is that we did. But looking forward...states will prepare differently if they understand that it's their responsibility rather than that of the federal government.

FABRIZIO: Are you saying that if the government would have stayed out of it, the country could have worked out the issues that are being dealt with by these programs, like poverty, like food safety...?

LEE: I've never said that isn't the proper role of government. What I've said is it's not necessarily the role of the federal government. I think it's important to ask the question, not just "should government do this? What is the proper role of government?" But "which government are you talking about?"

QUESTION: You said the framers intended state lawmakers deal with that, not the federal law?

LEE: Absolutely.

The extreme argument that the government is overstepping its bounds, even by providing disaster relief to a state hit by a devastating natural disaster, appears indicative of a politician who campaigned on intense stated desires to dismantle many aspects of the federal government in order to strip away national regulations and delegate many of those responsibilities to the states.

However, the argument that such actions by the federal government are actually not provided for in the Constitution has been hotly contested by many who argue that the document's interstate commerce clause and general welfare clause, enumerated in Article 1, Section 8 of the text, actually leave many of these powers out of the hands of the states.

ThinkProgress also caught a lecture of Lee's last week in which the senator argued that federal child-labor laws were unconstitutional, seemingly based largely on his belief that the states should be allowed to make those determinations.

WATCH (via ThinkProgress):

Comments

[ppp1604]

07:11 AM on 01/25/2011

But when actually presented with an Opportunity to Lead, what does MR. Lee do?

Goes to the trough like everyone else!

http://blog.stanleyyelnats.com/

[linusinutah]

01:23 AM on 01/22/2011

Wait... I think I just figured this out. The Federal Government does not have the constitutional right to prohibit a state from declaring polygamy to be legal! Woo hoo!

[Gary Simmie Hoover]

04:30 PM on 01/21/2011

Lee's position -- to destroy all of Federal government except for war-making and Homeland Security Police -- is a perfect corporatist, or fascist, position. Corporations would love to wield the Federal Government directly as the iron fist no longer bound by democracy at all. The iron fist makes the way for Corporate "person's" interests this way, not the people's interests.

The Federal government will get bigger under corporatism. And more focused on war as foreign policy and a domestic police state. Brownshirts, anyone?

[nick1936]

02:44 PM on 01/21/2011

So is Government paid health care for Senators and congressman and paying them while not in Washington working cut their salary and staff for starters

[grovestand12]

02:29 PM on 01/21/2011

until a disaster happens to him and his constituents...

[seventeengeese]

02:39 PM on 01/21/2011

I don't think Joseph Smith included disasters in his conversations with god.

[barrada nicto]

03:09 AM on 01/22/2011

I expect he will be the disaster happening to his constituents.

[Puzzlr]

02:17 PM on 01/21/2011

Wonder how he feels about all the food stamps that are being used by people with multiple families up there in Utah.

[grovestand12]

02:30 PM on 01/21/2011

they are white so it's a-okay!

[boyer37212]

01:42 PM on 01/21/2011

He has a gopher face.

[CenterMod]

01:41 PM on 01/21/2011

To take Mr. Lee literally, we should just take the country back to 1786, when the States had all the power and responsibility. And slaves. And women couldn't vote. And no Internet.

[annie345]

02:05 PM on 01/21/2011

Now that's an idea!
As usual, we have many opinions about what is wrong and what shouldn't be done but very few ,or actually none, about what we should do, and solutions. All criticism and nothing else. I sure wish they would change that tune.

[TitaniumAvatar]

01:39 PM on 01/21/2011

What's to be next on Mike Lee's 'It's unconstitutional' Tour? Mother's Milk?

[Anne Johnson]

01:37 PM on 01/21/2011

Republicans always want everyone to fend for themselves until they're the ones who need help. I have yet to see any of them handle a disaster on their own without screaming for help from the feds. That whole rugged induvidualism thingy is a myth.

[BlueRoseofTexas]

01:37 PM on 01/21/2011

Sometimes I wish we had let the South just go ahead and secede. Except I live there now so that would be bad for my husband and me.

[T-Bone Apollo]

01:48 PM on 01/21/2011

One of the reasons we did not let the South go is Lincoln wanted the South's raw materials for the industries located in the North. The South was selling commodities to the highest bidder, including the Europeans... Lincoln was a Republican so this really puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

[BlueRoseofTexas]

01:56 PM on 01/21/2011

I am aware that the Civil War was fought for money. All wars in the end are fought for money and power. However, the regressive philosophies of the Confederates and their latterday counterparts in the Republican party are counter to a just and fair society which is what I believe in. So, I stand by my wish that we could have just cut them loose--although I understand why we couldn't and didn't.

[grovestand12]

02:31 PM on 01/21/2011

uh, yeah it does...

[MANK]

01:30 PM on 01/21/2011

I triple dog dare you to stand in the "well" and tell that to all the southern senators.

[offred]

12:40 PM on 01/21/2011

How lucky for Utah that it never has any disasters and therefore has no need for FEMA ever.

[C Reese Nebeker]

06:01 AM on 01/22/2011

This last year Utah has had 2 oil spills that were environmental disasters, and could have a major earth quake at any time. I'm sure he would love to get the child labor laws changed so all the boys abandoned by the fundamentalist (read polygamists) from Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho could be put to work instead of surviving by prostitution & drug dealing.

[Grunty1]

12:24 PM on 01/21/2011

I bet Mike Lee's next outtake will be to outlaw traffic laws.
 
After all, green and red lights aren't mentioned anywhere in the Constitution!

[onegandolf1]

12:17 PM on 01/21/2011

I just noticed that in this picture of Mike Lee he could have been used as a model for a South Park Character (it's in the mouth, obviously the rest of him isn't round).