Do you mean if a parent CANNOT afford to feed their child? I'm not implying the govt. to take away kids. I do assert that if a parent has chances to get a job to feed the child and doesn't do what it takes, then in some cases the child should be placed in a more stable home.
Anyway, back to State/Federal powers...
Oops, yea. Cannot. Mea culpa.
I'm not saying you implied it, sorry
it's a thought that comes to mind for me from time to time. I would agree that if a parent
can do the things necessary to feed a child and refuse to do so that the government - state or federal - should take action but I don't think it's fair to say that everyone
can. I'd say that in many situations a parent without a social network to assist them might not have many options and that the system itself is a direct impedance to getting off of it.
But back to the state/federal issue....well, I asked before what guarantee do we have that the states will do the right thing? We really don't. There are plenty of states that today do things that many people within that very state disagree with.
I'm all for living by the Constitution but I think in this fast-paced world the Constitution is sorely lacking. There are a number of things the federal government has done without constitutional authorization that have been beneficial to the country and to the whole world. There's no authorization for NIH funding - though I believe there should be - and it has done amazing things for the advancement of human knowledge in additional to the practical applications of improving and even saving lives.
I don't necessarily have more faith in the fed than I have in the states but I also don't see any reason to have more faith in the states than in the fed. Point is, there are a number of circumstances in which a person cannot simply move to another state - it's not reasonable to suggest one leave their home, history, career, family and entire culture just because their state doesn't afford what they believe to be a basic right - and in some cases the issues at hand are so important to the overall scope of society that states simply don't or maybe even shouldn't have the authority to control.