Follow Up - State's rights

Another Federal Power Grab
Friday the all powerful imperial federal government notified the sovereign State of California that they were going to play by the fed's rules, or else. Now, the short version of this infuriating story is that once again this administration is trampling all over State's rights and the 10th Amendment. The part that really gets my blood pressure up though is the details:

1. What is the nature of the threat? What are the feds going to do if CA doesn't shape up and do things the federal way? They are going to withhold "Stimulus" money from the state. To the tune of BILLION$ of DOLLAR$. OF OUR MONEY! Just for a refresher; the feds cannot give something to anyone that it has not first taken from someone else.
2. What was the great offense CA committed that brought down the ire of the almighty? They had the nerve to cut the portion of pay the state contributed to home health care workers. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot a really important word from the previous sentence: "unionized" health care workers. According to the LA Times article this group of workers contributes millions monthly in dues to two very influential unions. Do we need to discuss who the unions supported in the last election?

Now follow the progression here: the federal government passes an illegal stimulus plan; they need trillions of dollars to cover the commitments of this bill; the only way they can acquire the money is through taxation (their only way to generate revenue) or debt - which will have to be paid back later with ... taxes; they are going to insist that these taxes they have confiscated for this illegal bill be used to pay union wages. My head just might explode. Welcome to payback time. Our President is wasting no time returning the favors of those that helped to get him elected.