A Fine State Of Affairs

 

President Obama was expected to announce new, tougher nationwide rules for auto emissions and mileage standards today, ending years of wrangling over competing state standards, which is a good thing.

 

Of course, that leaves countless opportunities for wrangling and delay caused by different state standards in other areas. We may recite a pledge claiming ourselves “One Nation, Under God, indivisible,” but anyone who has tried to accomplish anything across state lines must have their doubts.

 

It shows up in many ways. I live in New Jersey, so I don’t pump my own gas – except when I visit some other state, where I must. And here the speed limit is 65 miles per hour, but elsewhere in the country it is also 65 -- unless it’s 60, 70, 75 or 80.

 

Same-sex couples can marry in five states, soon to be six with the expected addition of New Hampshire. But those marriages won’t be recognized in other states except New Mexico, New York and Rhode Island. It’s enough to drive you to distraction, but the license and insurance requirements to do so in a motor vehicle vary from state to state.

 

Gun laws differ dramatically from state to state. New Jersey practically requires Saint Peter giving testimony while the Heavenly Chorus sings your praise for a permit, and woe betide the person striding down the street with a rifle on their shoulder. But Virginia’s state police say the state “does not require firearm registration nor is it necessary to obtain a permit before carrying a firearm or other such weapon openly about the person except where prohibited by statute.” And you can walk into a Virginia Wal-Mart, present two IDs, answer a few easy questions for a computerized background check and walk out armed.

 

The point here isn’t whether or not any of these conflicting rules is better than the other; the point is that it’s nuts to have so many, covering almost every aspect of life. Medicaid has different rules by state. So does buying and selling a home, opening a back account, getting a divorce, filing a lawsuit, not to forget committing, prosecuting and punishing crime.

 

Even in disaster response, different states have different skills and degrees of preparedness, under different chains of command and control, often with the only commonality being victims who shouldn’t have died.

 

And don’t even start about direct election of the president instead of the current electoral college that makes it possible to win the nation’s highest office without a majority of the popular vote.

 

Not to mention the tax structures that finance all of this mess and themselves differ dramatically from state to state.

 

From time to time, folks have advocated replacing the hodge-podge of state policies on most issues with national policies, so the law would be the same everywhere in the United States, instead of changing every time you moved anywhere from a few feet to many miles.

 

Critics immediately respond that such a move would make state governments pointless, and leave them as nothing more than symbols.

 

Well, yes.

 

It’s time.

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