The following are excerpts from a speech he gave more than a decade ago at a National Governors' Association meeting. My sense of alarm is perhaps a little more extreme. A lot of observers in this country feel that, taken on a historic scale, the states are obsolete, they are headed the way of the passenger pigeon and the Edsel. The reult is that the federal system is in total disarry. The United States Congress has lost all sense of restraint.
States are at a crossroads.
Fourteen years have passed since he spoke those words. And matters have only worsened. I think water will run uphill first. I'd like to suggest, whether it's a Republican or Democrat, the President is not likely to do it because the President must depend on Congress to make any meaningful changes. Just like with the sprinkler system on my grandfather's farm, we cannot look to anyone but ourselves to fix the problem.