Similarities and Differences in Federal Powers
In the United States, there are two levels of power and legal authority: the federal level and the state level. The federal level is the government that unifies and sits atop the different states of the union, and below it states have their own powers and authorities within their own borders. With very few exceptions, state powers are supposed to mimic federal powers within their own borders.
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Taxation
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An old saying goes that only two things are certain in life: death and taxes. Governments levy different taxes upon their citizens in order to raise the money necessary to function. These tax dollars go towards paying for the military, paying government and law enforcement officials and funding various public programs. The power to levy taxes is shared by both the state and federal levels of government. As citizens are recipients of services from both their state and federal government, they must pay taxes that both levy upon them.
Military
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Control of the armed forces is primarily a federal power. While the federal government funds and commands the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard, states have power over similar organizations: the national guards. While the federal branches of the armed forces are owned by the federal government, national guard units are owned by the state in which they are stationed. They are under the command of the governor of that state, who can call up units to help deal with state emergencies. However, the national guards are defensive forces: the only times they can be sent over seas is if the federal government borrows them, in which case they fall under federal powers and jurisdictions.
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Foreign Affairs
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While states have many powers of their own, the ability to conduct negotiations or sign legally binding treaties with foreign powers is not among them. Section two of the second article of the United States constitution explicitly reserves this power to the President and Congress. The President is empowered to conduct foreign negotiations to formulate and sign treaties with other countries, but the treaty is not legally binding unless two thirds of the Senate votes in favor for the treaty.
The 10th Amendment
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In order to give states as much power as possible, the role of the federal government is explicitly limited by the 10th amendment of the Constitution, or the last of the so called Bill of Rights. The 10th amendment states that "[t]he 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." Consequently, states have legal power in any vacuum where the Constitution does not grant the federal government legal authority.
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References
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