In another post a while back I discussed the Council on State Governments and how they hold secret meetings with state legislatures trying to make the states comply with Federal Government ideas and regulations. Here a good friend of mine from near Ponca City, Oklahoma talks about them also. I talk about the Federalism-Cooperative Federalism scheme, but don't address particulars often enough to really get what I'm talking about across. What happened is this: From after the Civil War until about 1925, Congress all but abandoned government in the framework of constitutionally enumerated powers. Nearly all legislation enacted by Congress, assuming it is properly enacted to begin with, applies only to territories and insular possessions of the United States, i.e., Acts of Congress as opposed to laws of the United States. State governments put up an amount of resistance through the early twentieth century, but were overwhelmed by the stock market crash in 1929 and ensuing great depression conditions. By 1933, over forty percent of the nation's industrial capacity was shut down, urban unemployment exceeded 30% and the banking system was a shambles. Conditions were desperate. FDR was sworn in as President on March 4, 1933. The day before he met with the nation's governors. They pretty well gave Roosevelt a free hand to do whatever was necessary to provide relief. Shortly after midnight on Monday, March 6th, Roosevelt issued two emergency orders, one declaring the bank holiday and the other calling the special session of Congress on Thursday, March 9th. The banking relief act was pushed through the special session -- printed copies of the bill weren't even passed out. Congress was for all practical purposes held hostage with a "due pass" mandate. They couldn't even offer amendments to the bill. Many of the governors remained in Washington at least through that Monday & they again gave a vote of confidence to Roosevelt. Enter the Council of State Governments. The predecessor was the organization, association or council of state legislators, which was established in 1926 or '27. Select members of that organization developed a plan for the Council of State Governments. The Council of State Governments was established, and the first meeting held, in 1933. The first conference was in Denver. Those who attended the conference signed a Declaration of Intergovernmental Dependence. However, at that juncture both the legislators' organization and the Council of State Governments were private and privately funded. The Spielman Fund, which is one of the Rockefeller Foundation funds, was largely responsible for bankrolling both. Getting state governments to fund the things, and gain quasi-governmental standing, was at the top of the agenda for both organizations. The Council of State Governments holds a general conference every-other year. It then publishes an edition of The Book of the States. If you have access to a federal depository library, it probably has the whole series, beginning with the 1933 edition. At the third conference held in Washington, D.C. in January 1937, representatives of the several States signed another Declaration of Intergovernmental Dependence. It is published in Volume 2 of the 1937 edition of The Book of the States. I have a copy that I will scan when I find it so everybody can read it. The thing elevates government above the people -- it is completely contrary to the Declaration of Independence. The Council of State Governments serves as the clearinghouse for uniform laws that align the several States as though they were political subdivisions of federal government, i.e., territories and insular possessions of the United States. States of the Union, the District of Columbia, and insular possessions of the United States are members on equal footing. They belong to regional economic development compacts, among other compacts, and they stand on a par within the context of uniform laws enacted in each jurisdiction. If you will look in your state laws you will find that the Council of State Governments and a multitude of organizations such as the governors' and legislators' organizations are now funded with state tax dollars. And you will also find that uniform laws laundered through the Council of State Governments, such as the Uniform Commercial Code, have been adopted by your state legislature. To the best of my knowledge, the Uniform Commercial Code is the only "law" that recognizes the Federal Reserve Note and other "currencies of record" as "money." It's obviously patently unconstitutional as it defies Article I § 10 of the U.S. Constitution. This is frequently if not commonly the case for other uniform acts and multistate compacts. In addition to uniform laws, the Council of State Governments is the entity through which the states enter numerous compacts. One of those compacts is a tax compact that accommodates, and to a certain extent clarifies, the income tax scheme. So far as the compacts are concerned, they are treated more or less as treaties that cannot be broken. Once a state signs on, theoretically it is bound from that point forward. Once I found it, I spent considerable time reading articles, speeches & conference reports in The Book of the States. Those who promoted the Council of State Governments rationalized the undertaking based on the notion that if the states didn't band together, they were in danger of being completely taken over, and thereby either eliminated or reduced to the status of helpless puppets, by federal government. If they banded together, which they did, they would at least be able to negotiate limits, terms and conditions. Roosevelt enticed state accommodation through an elaborate federal grants scheme. Today state and local governments are as dependent on federal grants and revenue-sharing programs as heroine addicts are on steady supplies of opium. State and local courts, enforcement and penal systems are first-class junkies. They couldn't keep their doors open without the steady flow of fiat federal money. Thus "Cooperative Federalism" as a proper noun. When I use the term, I'm not talking about an abstract theory or notion -- it is a formal, existent scheme. It accommodates usurpation of power that has undermined the republic and all but destroyed the American economic infrastructure. Get acquainted with these folks. In April 1981 I hired on as a writer for The Alva Review-Courier, a rural daily newspaper in Western Oklahoma. Within about a week I was asked to write an article spoofing the publisher. After the regular run for the day, the staff was going to change the first and last pages to roast him for his birthday. The sort run was to be passed out at a dinner party in his honor. Since I didn't know anything about him, I began my article with, "I don't know XXXXX well enough to dislike him. I don't know if he really beats his wife or not..." My predecessor as managing editor nearly fell in the floor laughing. He ran my piece as the lead article under a banner headline. That evening the rest of the staff laughed, too, but the guy we roasted didn't have anything particular to say. In fact, he didn't mention the article. I wasn't among those invited to participate in the live roast. Two or three weeks later his wife had a shiner you wouldn't believe. The managing editor again giggled. "See why everybody laughed at your article?" In this case, I know whereof I speak. The Council of State Governments sits in an important catbird seat, and even though very few people even know it exists, it affects all of our lives. Dan Meador And just why is this important to us all? Other than the things Dan talks about here in his article there is the cost factor. Each legislator in the nation pays $1,000 per year to belong to this quasi-governmental organization and others as well and guess who pays the tab? The taxpayers pay for it with their tax dollars. And while we fund these people who come meddle in our affairs our schools have to do without lots of things they need like air conditioning and many other things. Budget crunch they holler. Everybody gotta tighten their belts. Why? So those privedigled few fat cats can waste it on think tanks like this. They gotta let criminals out of prison because the prison system don't have enough money yet they can waste it like this.
