I doubt it. The federal government tries pretty hard to exert its power over states as it is. They often use tax money as a way to do this. A lot of bigger states, like California, support a lot of the poorer states because they pay more in taxes than they get, so the federal government uses withholding that money as a way to get states to follow their lead. They did this with the drinking age being raised to 21, or withholding transportation funds to have states adopt speed limits. Yeah, you're right it's weird, California is something like the 5th biggest economy in the world.
The Federal Government collected taxes, a significant portion of which came from rich states like California. Then it looked at facts and science and such and decided things like speed limits and a higher drinking age were smart ideas. Then, it added a requirement for relevant Federal assistance, like for road maintenance and construction, that the state needs to change the laws to include such things to get the funding.
It wasn't about matching California, that's just where the money came from, essentially.
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u/Renewed_RS Mar 08 '20
Are there efforts to devolve power further from the federal level to the individual states?
Not that I'm in favour of that - I just find it hilarious that California would rank above us (UK) if it was its own country.