Congressional Republicans blocked Obama-era regulations which would have exempted state and municipal retirement plans, that wish to cover city/state residents who have no retirement coverage, from most ERISA-regulations.  ERISA, as we know, otherwise preempts state laws dealing with retirement plans except for certain exceptions not relevant here.

What happened to the sacred values summarized in sound bites, just to list a very few, like;

  • state rights (not talking about the dog-whistle variety of states rights)
  • states are incubators of innovation and/or the laboratories of democracy
  • states should not be forced to adopt one-size-fits-all blanket approaches
  • local control is the truest (bluest) example of democracy
  • important issues should not be resolved on the whims of elected officials or faceless bureaucrats in Washington, DC (EN’s birthplace!)
  • the 10th Amendment rivals any amendment in importance (see State Republican Leaders declining to cooperate in Prez’s voter fraud investigation)

One of pillars of the Senate, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch explained GOP opposition in floor remarks-

These regulations encourage state and municipal governments to impose conflicting and burdensome mandates on private-sector businesses and to bar private workers’ access to their retirement accounts.   See March 30 on-line edition of The Washington Post.

The Senator sounds GOPish when it comes to land management.

The Federal Government owns most of the land in Utah – making decisions without even consulting state and local officials. This is an outrage and is not what our federated system of government stands for. Over the years, we have had more than our fair share of fights with the Federal Government about how our land should be managed. It’s just common sense that the people who are closest to the land and whose lives depend on being able to use the resources should have a seat at the table when it comes to managing it. https://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/land-rights

And on health care:

Unfortunately, the finest health care system in the world was severely compromised by the partisan health care law that Congress passed and the President signed in March 2010.  The $2.6 trillion health law’s unprecedented expansion of federal power and one-size-fits-all mandates are a failure.  https://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/health-care

The retirement gap is huge.  Let those closest to the people try to help.  There is a better than even chance that at least a few of these state and local plans will fail, then Congress can decline to resort to, that most-dreaded of federal remedies, the bailout!