I'm Lana Ulrich, in-house counsel for the National Constitution Center, and welcome to We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.

The Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase awareness

and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.

This week, during a symposium held at the National Constitution Center through the generosity

of John Aguilaro, we the people host Jeffrey Rosen sat down with George Will, Pulitzer Prize-winning

columnist for the Washington Post to discuss federalism, the 17th Amendment, and the

state of American politics today.

Please join me in welcoming the great Constitution Center. It is such an honor to have you here.

I'll just jump in.

You've listened to this excellent discussion.

After what you've heard, should we repeal the 17th Amendment or not?

Well, yes, but it wouldn't cure very much.

It was a bad idea to repeal it.

It was as it was as it was it suggested that the point of Republican government is

small are that the people do not decide, they decide who shall decide the issues.

And I think that attaching the senators more closely to state interests with buttress federalism somewhat, but A, I am a fountain of lost causes, and I know one when I see one.

So this is not going to happen.

And besides, if you really want to know

where federalism died, first it hadn't died,

it may be in hospice care, and it's a bit anemic, but it's not dead.

The 17th Amendment was a kind of small tombstone over traditional federalism. What really did federalism in was the 16th Amendment.

Because the income tax, giving the federal government this enormous mechanism for

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