It's not about states' rights, it's about selfishly supporting their own causes.

 From Robert Reich

Republicans continuously demand that the federal government turn responsibilities over to the states because, they say, the states are “closer to the people.” But when “the people” happen to be citizens (often African-American and/or Democrats) who want to increase their city's minimum wage, Republicans forget their “closer to the people” argument and pass state legislation barring it.

This happened yesterday in Idaho, where the GOP legislature passed a bill preventing any Idaho city from raising the city minimum wage. It happened last month in Alabama, where Republican lawmakers took aim at Birmingham, where local Democratic lawmakers had raised the local minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Similar state bans have been passed in Oklahoma, Michigan, and 16 other Republican-dominated states.

So the next time you hear a Republican politician argue that Washington should turn responsibilities over to the states because the states are “closer to the people,” know it’s pure baloney. What they really want is for lawmaking to be closer to business.

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