Former Pennsylvania State Rep. Sam Rohrer (R) is leading the GOP field for his party’s nomination for U.S. Senate, according to the latest PPP poll. He is seeking the right to challenge Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D) in November.
In a 2009 video, Rohrer revealed a shockingly radical interpretation of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — expressing a view that most of the last 100 years violates the Constitution.
Rohrer, campaigning for his own House resolution to assert state sovereignty, explained:
ROHRER: Over time, over the last many generations, the federal government — seeking to grow, as most governments tend to grow — have become increasingly involved in activities that have been reserved to the states, being involved in such things as education, or health care, or for that matter even highways and roads. A great many things the federal government has increasingly passed laws, appropriated tax dollars which are yours and mine, and attempted to force the states to implement laws for which then the federal government essentially has control, so today we spend billions of dollars in this commonwealth in education and welfare that are put upon us, effectively, by the federal government. The states being enticed by the monies.
Later in the video, he opines that the 10th amendment “says we are a sovereign state first of all. Federal government, do not any longer tell us or entice us to go in a direction for which we cannot afford to go nor properly should go.”
Watch the video here (from the 1:37 mark):
Under Rohrer’s interpretation of the constitution, the federal government may not operate Medicare or Medicaid, provide any safety net for poor families with depended children, enact any national educational standards, or even build or fund any interstate highways or bridges — even if they have a profound impact on interstate commerce. Rohrer makes no mention, however of any plan to give back the billions of dollars in federal highway funding Pennsylvania has received — or to give back Interstate 70.