[bullseyebarb]

[quote=Eric;479711) Large amounts of Federal tax revenues are returned to the Provinces thro' transfer payments. The poorer Provinces get more than the rich ones. These are called equalization payments. In other words, and this ramble will soon come to an end (it's fianlly raining, and I'm stuck inside today) it seems fine to say that States have the right to "experiment" with "social engineering." But do they have the resources? Can they question the spending, particularly the military spending, of the Feds? Do things like medicare come under the jurisdiction of the states, or of the Federal Govt.? Are things such as same sex marriages Federal or State questions? In Canada, the Provinces exert a hell of a lot on influnece on the Federal govt. Is the same true of American states? And I am interested more in the practice than the theory.[/quote]

Redistribution of wealth.......aka socialism. The states would indeed have the resources if we were not required to send so much of our cash to Washington - where it gets sucked into the maw of bureaucracy. I prefer one on one solutions at a local level. This is not a one size fits all country. The states should be free to decide for themselves what their priorities are. Medicare is a federal invention and has done much to skew our free market system of medicine. I lived here before Medicare/Medicaid and having had ample opportunity to compare the two systems, I vastly prefer the free market version. It worked well and was low cost. As to same sex marriage.....the government should butt out. Marriage always was a religious institution. In my opinion, the government has no business trying to redefine it. Yes, individual states can influence national politics.