Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been discussed as a VP choice for John McCain for a while now, and just this Sunday the two had a rather interesting meeting. Not so much interesting because McCain and Palin are at odds over drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (Palin is for it, McCain is against it), but because Palin says that she’d like to make her state less dependent on federal money.

Palin said she spoke with McCain about his plans to reform the federal budget process by curbing the use of congressional earmarks to fund pet projects; an issue he’s made central to his campaign for president.

The writing is on the wall, change is coming, Palin said. “Alaska is not going to be able to request that the rest of the United States pay for projects that are going to be perceived as solely benefiting Alaskans anymore,” she said. “They are going to have to have national implications.

“I know that I get criticized from some for saying things like that because they say, ‘but we are a young state and we’re lacking in the infrastructure that other states have benefited from for many, many more decades then Alaska has.’

“Maybe so. So be it. But the reality is from Congress to the White House on down, Alaskans are being told wake up, you have to be less reliant on the federal government. So I’m saying, ‘OK then let us be less reliant on you. Allow us to develop our resources. Let us prove to you that we can responsibly and safely do this.’” Palin has told her staff to limit the number of requests for earmarks to the congressional delegation.

That’s a very principled stand for a Republican to take these days, and Palin should be commended for it. Not only is she promoting fiscal responsibility (most politicians seem willing to try and convince voters that federal tax dollars aren’t really their tax dollars), she’s also protecting the spirit of state sovereignty and local autonomy.

There is a string attached to every single dollar sent by the federal government to states and localities, and the folks in Washington DC use those strings to control policy. Look at family law in the various states, for instance. Particularly law as it applies to child support. States don’t have a lot of leeway to change child support laws because a lot of them are mandated by the federal government, and that mandate is tied to health and human services funding.

If a state tries to change the law, they loose funding. Which means that citizens can’t change their own state-level laws without the permission of politicians in DC who aren’t even from their states.

Fair? Not even a little bit, which is why we need to stop letting politicians congratulate themselves on bringing home lots and lots of federal money. In the long run, it’s better for a state to be independent of that money.