How did the federal government get this big?

Some state are poorer than others and found ways to get federal money. Ironically, this is often the states that are considered the most "Republican"!

States receiving the most federal funding per tax dollar paid:

1. New Mexico: $2.63

2. West Virginia: $2.57

3. Mississippi: $2.47

4. District of Colombia: $2.41

5. Hawaii: $2.38

6. Alabama: $2.03

7. Alaska: $1.93

8. Montana: $1.92

9. South Carolina: $1.92

10. Maine: $1.78

The 10th amendment does indeed say that any powers not given to the US government belong to the states. However, the US constitution gives very broad powers to the federal government. Most of them can be found in Article 1 of the constitution.

Various clauses such as the "general welfare" clause and "taxing and spending" clause have generally been interpreted very broadly as well, and give the government power over a wide array of issues.

So while the 10th amendment gives all other powers to the states, the federal government still have extensive powers at its disposal.

If the Constitution had not been amended we would still have slavery in that states that wanted it, there would be no income tax so we could not Support our large military and the bill of rights would not apply to state governments.

The commander-in-chief decided to keep a full time army after WWII. The country doubled in size .. twice, increased in population from 5,000,000 to 313,914,000, went from a newly emerging nation like Uganda to world power. The government kind of had to grow to keep up.

We allowed it to happen because we love our food stamps and welfare.