The age of pork

Thanks in part to Senator Richard Shelby, Alabama will be getting $350,000 in federal money to combat underage drinking. From Senator Shelby's press release:

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, announced today that the Department of Justice has awarded $350,000 for the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, Law Enforcement and Traffic Safety Division’s Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Block Grant Program. The funding will assist statewide efforts to enforce underage drinking laws.

Senator Shelby said, “I am pleased to announce $350,000 to enforce underage drinking laws. Too often, underage drinking is viewed as a right of passage for teenagers despite the number of alcohol related accidents and deaths that occur each year. I believe we must support the efforts of state and local law enforcement to uphold the law. Enforcement, coupled with education, is our best protection against needless drunk driving accidents and fatalities.”

Reducing underage drinking may be a worthy objective, but I've yet to find an underage drinking clause in the Constitution giving the feds that responsibility. Is the federal government so awash in revenue that it can afford to hand out money for activities that have traditionally, and constitutionally, been handled by the states? Are states so strapped for cash that they can't come up with the money on their own? I think not. The federal government is running a deficit of over $300 billion annually, while the State of Alabama has more money than it knows what to do with.

I guess I should look on the bright side, though. It'll be much easier to curb underage drinking than it will be to curb the federal government's spending habits.