Originally published November 28 2012
Why state budget deficits are self-inflicted delusions: Here's how any U.S. state could become a wellspring of riches almost overnight
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) State budget deficits are self-inflicted delusions. Any state in the USA could almost instantly eliminate all budget deficits and start rolling in billions of dollars in state revenues by embracing freedom for farmers, holistic health practitioners and other groups (see below).
All that's needed to unleash this economic Golden Age is for a state to be willing to nullify outmoded, ridiculous federal restrictions on things like growing industrial hemp. The federal government has no jurisdiction within a state's borders. This is openly described in the U.S. Constitution. Predictably, the federal government pretends it has jurisdiction over all economic activity by invoking the so-called "Commerce Clause," but the government's actions are a gross (intentional) misinterpretation of that clause. In reality, any state that stood its ground on commercial production and trade within its own borders could very easily nullify the federal government by invoking the Tenth Amendment which reads:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
As the federal government was never delegated the power to regulate industrial hemp, medical marijuana, nutritional supplements, medicinal herbs, firearms or any other item imaginable, it has no actual power to regulate the commerce of such items within a state.
This provides a remarkable opportunity for any state willing to stand up against the federal government's economic insanity and unleash a new Golden Age within its own borders by invoking one or more of the following five suggestions.
Here are the five ways in which any U.S. state could unleash an economic Golden Age almost immediately:
#1) Decriminalize industrial hemp farming
There is no logical reason why industrial hemp farming should remain illegal in America. It's legal in China, Canada, and most of Central and South America. America imports hundreds of millions of dollars worth of hemp products each year, enriching the farmers of other nations while punishing U.S. farmers through a truly insane police of agricultural prohibition.
Why can't America's farmers grow a product that we already import and consume in huge quantities?
Any state that legalized hemp farming would unleash an agricultural revolution of such magnitude that it would be rolling in excess tax revenues which could be used to invest in anything it wanted: Schools, roads, even preventive health care services.
#2) Decriminalize, tax and regulate medicinal marijuana
Beyond hemp farming, the next step for any state with the courage to move forward is the decriminalization and regulation of medical marijuana, both in terms of its production and its sale. Regulate it, tax it and control it, and you unleash a massive new source of wealth for your state while also driving drug gangs OUT of your state (because there's no more profit in selling the stuff when it's legal and regulated).
With millions of people already using marijuana to treat pain and help alleviate medical symptoms, the market on this is obviously huge... billions of dollars a year in California alone. All that's required to make this work is to license growers, then tax and regulate marijuana until your state's budget is running in the green. Americans are already smoking marijuana at will, so why not have their purchase dollars go to the state instead of the criminal drug gangs?
Ending prohibition on medical marijuana is a win for everyone involved, and it sucks the profit out of the criminal drug trade, thereby vastly reducing state expenditures on law enforcement and prisons.
#3) Decriminalize holistic healing and natural medicine
Holistic healing is illegal almost everywhere. No natural practitioner can claim to treat, prevent or cure any disease without being subjected to arrest and imprisonment.
This position is absurd. Holistic healing, the healing arts and even nutritional therapies are in fact far more powerful than conventional medicine when it comes to preventing disease and improving the quality of life. If true health freedom were legalized in a U.S. state, it would unleash an economic boom across the holistic health community, and practitioners would flock to the state, quickly followed by an explosion in medical tourism from all across the country.
As a quick example, consider this. Conventional cancer treatments fail 98% of the time. (They only work on about 2% of cancers.) Mammography is a medical hoax that sucks women into a false diagnosis which benefits cancer clinics but harms and even physically maims women. The conventional cancer industry is an utter failure that destroys lives and drains the economy. There's got to be a better solution for cancer, right?
There is! Alternative cancer treatments have a far better outcome, reversing cancer in 50% or more of typical patients. Any state that legalized CAM cancer treatments (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) would instantly become a medical tourism destination for the nation, attracting billions of dollars in revenue to the state each year in the form of natural medicine services and CAM cancer treatments.
To accomplish this, the state doesn't even have to endorse alternative medicine; it only needs to create the freedom of a level playing field where patients have the choice of what kind of health practitioner they want to see. Decriminalize holistic healing and alternative medicine and you unleash an economic boom that simultaneously improves the long-term health of your state's population!
#4) Decriminalize truthful health claims on nutritional supplements
Thanks to oppressive federal laws, nutritional supplements must currently censor the scientific truth about how they can help prevent, treat or cure disease. This FDA-enforced censorship is designed solely to protect the profit interests of the pharmaceutical industry.
If a U.S. state nullified the FDA's censorship of nutritional supplements and allowed truthful, scientifically-validated health claims to be printed on labels of products sold within the state, it would experience a huge influx of not just in-state sales of such products, but even visitors from bordering states who would flood into the state to purchase products.
The most likely candidate state for what I call "health product LABELING freedom" is of course Utah. If Utah simply passed a law allowing supplement makers to tell the truth on product labels, it would see an explosion in sales of its products not just to Utah citizens, but also visitors from neighboring states. This, in turn, would generate more sales taxes, jobs and economic growth for the state of Utah.
#5) Legalize banking privacy
Today's banks operate a spy centers for the U.S. government, turning over all details of personal banking, including deposits, withdrawals, and wire transfers to the federal government. This is all done in the name of "security" but it's really just an excuse to have the federal government conduct financial surveillance on the entire population.
What if a state launched a state-run bank that offered truly anonymous banking by refusing to turn over data to the feds? No names, no social security numbers and no personal details. Whoever holds the bank book has access to the account, and that's it. It's a physical token of security, and you can privately pay money to someone by simply handing them the bank book.
Such a system would attract masses of financial capital into the state, which the state could then use to make loans to its citizens for creating small businesses and new jobs. The state could even levy a 1% transaction fee on all transactions through the private banking system, raking in massive profits by, in effect, "soaking the rich" without levying a single new tax. The 1% fee is simply a trade for banking privacy, and there are countless wealthy individuals who would gladly pay that 1% to protect the privacy of their financial transactions.
But wait, I hear you say: Wouldn't criminal operations use the bank to launder their drug money? The simple answer to that is: The global banks ARE the criminal operations! Providing a state-run private bank would offer a new alternative for customers that allows them to avoid enriching the criminal banks that report all transactions to the federal government.
Besides, the Constitution gave the power to coin money to Congress, not to a private banking cartel known as the "Federal Reserve." Isn't it time the states (and the People) took back the power to at least run their own banks?
Five pathways to instant economic abundance
So there ya have it: Five ways any U.S. state could end its deficits, unleash freedom for its people, stand up against federal tyranny and set off an economic Golden Age within its borders.
All that is really necessary for this to happen is for one U.S. state to find the courage to defend the interests of its citizens rather than worship the tyranny and oppression of the federal government.
Is there such a state in the USA? We may soon find out. Two states -- Colorado and Washington -- have already passed marijuana decriminalization laws that directly contradict federal drug enforcement policy, and Texas is in the process of nullifying the TSA with a new law that would make it a crime for TSA goons to sexually molest air passengers as a condition of allowing them to travel. (And yes, isn't it insane that I even have to print such a sentence in our modern world?)
The bottom line is that as U.S. states before more frustrated with the bankruptcy, oppression and meddling of our corrupt, criminally-operated federal government, they will seek new ways to declare their own sovereignty on issues like economic activity within their own borders.
The incentive is that the first state to legalize these things will benefit the most from the economic windfall.
We can end the delusion of endless state budget deficits NOW
In summary, state budget deficits are self-inflicted delusions. They only exist because states refuse to declare their own economic independence on issues like agricultural hemp, medical marijuana, health freedom, nutritional supplements, private banking and more.
By bowing down to the corrupt, tyrannical federal government on these issues, states doom themselves to financial destitution while ignoring a multitude of phenomenal ideas for creating massive budget surpluses almost overnight.
Keep reading Natural News for more updates and daily news on economic liberty and state sovereignty.
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