Iowa should secede from the United States of America

The premise behind this topic is the fact that the Federal government is hurting Iowa, and that Iowa would be better off without the Federal government. I'm doing this debate again in the hopes that my opponent's responses won't make me feel like I'm beating a baby seal to death. 1.) At the moment, Iowa enjoys a first in the nation caucus status. Should this status go away, we will have little to no impact on national policies. The result of the 2010 census will likely strip us from a congressional delegation of seven, to six further minimizing the ability of our state to influence national policy. 2.) As a State, Iowa has been consistently in the top ten for the quality of k-12 education. We're currently still in the top ten, in spite of the fact that it is not a priority of our spending. We are currently ranked 42nd in teacher pay. This supports an idea that Iowans, whether conservative of liberal, value a good education to the point that we invest resources aside from our tax dollars to maintain the high quality of education in our state. The disparity between the quality of the top ten and the bottom ten is so great that there is no way that it could be argued that citizens of the bottom ten states have the same values and priorities as Iowans, yet all ten of these states receive a larger congressional delegation. 3.) The Foreign policy which the United States pursues does not reflect the values, goals, or interests of the People of Iowa. We treat our neighbors better than this. Internationally, the United States has tarnished its name. Meanwhile, very few people think ill of the Iowa and Iowans. The Federal government is hurting our preventing us from having positive international relationships. 4.) Iowa does not need to spend a half trillion dollars on defense each year, not including the cost of the Iraq war. No one hates Iowa, and no one desires to attack Iowa. A majority of the federal government's military commitments do not reflect the interest of Iowa. 5.) More than a third of our federal tax revenue goes towards paying the interest on the national debt. These are tax dollars that ought to go towards improving infrastructure, specifically investing in non-fossil fuel energy industries in states like Iowa. There are other industries that could use the investment, and education could be steadily improved if we weren't using our tax dollars to make payments to China. The 9 trillion dollars wasn't spent in Iowa. 6.) In the 1960s we had the most efficient health care in the country. When Medicare was conceived, they applied statewide spending to a specific formula which would regulate the amount of funding increases received each year in each state. This formula has punished us for being efficient, in that now Iowa receives the lowest Medicare funds per capita in the country. Our nurses and medical professionals are unable to make as much as they could in bordering states that are benefiting today from being wasteful in the 1960s. 7.) The American economy is on the verge of collapse. The dollars is rapidly inflating in value due to irresponsible spending. In the state of Iowa, we have laws requiring that the state have a balanced budget. This value is not reflected by the federal government that has decided to treat the future of Iowa, and all of the other states as a blank check while they proceeded to mortgage as much of our future as possible. By leaving the Federal Government, we could establish our own currency, and be able to let our own values of fiscal conservatism carry their weight with our government. Our seven member, soon to be six, congressional delegation is unable to bring this value to bear in the House and the Senate, and there's no reason why Iowa must suffer the same collapse that Federal government deserves. 8.) The Federal government is in need of serious reform, however it is so inundated with corruption that any effort to produce the required reforms is met with brutal resistance, denial, or is just ignored until the reform effort goes away. If Iowa is given the chance to define itself, we can create a much more fluid system with much less corruption and a better ability to self regulate given the smaller territory to look over, and the fact that Iowans, no matter what our differences, have more in common with each other than we do with Californians, New Yorkers, or Texans.