Okay, so do you remember those little rules about the government like separation of church and state or the difference between federal and state regulations? Well, after reading this website I realized that the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 somewhat crosses the latter’s boundaries.
So this is the setup: The federal government has its business and the state and local governments have theirs. That is why we have such things as mayors and presidents, not just one or the other (gee-whiz, you learn something new everyday!). So it was initially determined that the drinking age was something that would be regulated by the state, not the national government. BUT, once accidents started going up and drunkenness became more prevalent, the feds decided that they needed to do something about it. Therefore, they tied the highway funds (10% of a state’s revenue) to each state raising its drinking age. It reminds me of a sort of nice government blackmailing. Sort of like a graymailing between the feds and the state. As Balko so eloquently stated, it is essentially “enabling Congress to meddle in all sorts of state and local affairs it has no business attempting to regulate.”
Am I super oblivious for looking over this before? It’s just so clear to me now! This idea turned me into a conspiracy theorist. The government is out to get us all!!!! ….Only kidding. But seriously, isn’t it crazy to think about how the government can get around their own rules?
But we always have good ol’ Puerto Rico, right?? The US territory that has a drinking age of 18 and also the worst roads I have ever driven on. Hmmm……coincidence?
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