Would the us government be better if the federal government had very little power and what power the states did have was decided by voters in state?

[Anonymous]

this is basically how america was run before the constitution and we learned about it in school but never learned why the articles of confederation didn't work, so just wondering why it wouldn't?

[WindAtMyBack]

The Articles didn't work because the founders just finished throwing off a strong central government and were soooo afraid of repeating the same mistake that they went too far in the other direction.

The US government was beyond weak. It didn't exist. They had no legislature, no president, no taxation at that level (they were bankrupt), and no way to raise an army. I think international politics and trade were also issues. The states were fully autonomous, and the state governments were the highest level governments.

When they wrote the Constitution it was intended to be a minimal step in the direction of a centralized government. It was still very limited with the states still having almost complete autonomy. Since then the feds have slowly but almost continuously made a power grab. This was fueled by the people themselves since they always want the feds to do everything and don't look toward their own state or locality. It baffles me why people want to give up their power and say in government that way.

But to answer the question, hell yea we'd be better off if we went back to something resembling the original intention.

[OlderAndWiser]

The powers exercised by the states are controlled by the voters when the elect their representatives and senators to their state legislatures, but the federal government has usurped too much power!

[Asker]

under the articles of confederation they didn't even have the power to tax only states did and i think that would be better considering eho you vote in decides the tax rate

[Lliam]

I'll stick with the powers granted to the federal government by the constitution and amendments.
Beyond that, the federal government tries to gain as much control as possible. It's called federal government overreach and I'm opposed to it.

Also, many federal agencies should be abolished and others cut way back.

[joeldalton]

Yes. That would be great.