Conservatives have two problems our out of control federal government; the IRS gives government the unlimited power to tax our Income from any source they can imagine and our democratically elected legislators feel no real limits on spending. People demand things during elections and Congress gives them what they demand.

The founding fathers anticipated our federal government would grow to uncontrollable levels and they inserted language into the Constitution to protect states from out of control central government. They knew such a government would lead to tyranny. The best way to control central government was to give states the power to choose Senators.  Legislation had to be acceptable to states or Senators would not be elected to serve another term.

Article 1, Section. 3.
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

Senators, appointed to office by state legislatures, who vote for laws which shifts federally mandated spending to States would find themselves out of a job when their term was concluded. States rights were protected because Senators knew who put them in office. The founding fathers feared democracy. They knew that once voters figure out Congressmen and Senators voted into office can spend someone else s money on them,  the end of our republic was near.

William Randolph Herst sold the people on the idea that being a democracy was better than being a republic.  The new amendment was ratified during Woodrow Wilson’s administration and we have suffered from expanding government and spending problems ever since. See (Wikkipedia : Seventeenth Amendment (1913), (Wikkipedia : Sixteenth Amendment (1913)

Amendment XVII.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

The founding fathers believed in limiting the power of  centralized big government and it’s ability to pass expenditures to the states. Democratically elected Senators were now to be as responsive to the whims of public desire to spend money lavishly on themselves and seeking to shift the payment to someone else has led to the out of control spending that is bankrupting us today.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy…”  paraphrased from Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian.