Delftsman

STOP the Idiocy NOW!

Many people are, RIGHTFULLY, complaining about the current state of the National Budget. It is a monster out of all control. If a private person or corporation were to conduct their financial life in the manner the Federal government has over the last century or so, they would be charged in a court of law for gross malfeasence and sentenced to a lengthy jail term upon conviction.

The fact is, MOST of the expenditures undertaken by Congress aren't even Constitutional!
Don't believe me? check out Article One,Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution, where the general powers given to Congress are enumerated. (for those that can't seem to use Google, due to their government school education, I've posted said Article/Section in the extended entry) Remember, under the 10th Amendment, Congress is FORBIDDEN to excersize any power not specifically authorised by the Constitution...so how is it that Congress routinely does just that?

By the power of an activist Judiciary...a Judiciary that has set as precedent that Congress has that authority to enact any number of (unconstitutional) programs under the auspices of the Interstate Commerce Clause. (thats clause number three of Article 1,Section 8 of the constitution btw) which states: (Congress has the power)To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;; and the General Welfare Clause (Article 1 Section 8, clause 1), which states:The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

How has this situation come to pass you ask? The original purpose of the Commerce Clause was primarily a means to eliminate trade barriers among the states. During the (Revolutionary) war, the 13 colonies formed a union under the Articles of Confederation (1778) whereby "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled." The Treaty of Paris (1783) that ended the war between the colonies and Great Britain recognized 13 sovereign nations.

A key failing of the Articles of Confederation was the propensity of states to erect protectionist trade barriers. When the Framers met in Philadelphia in 1787 and wrote the constitution that governs us today, they addressed that failure through the commerce and the privileges and immunities clauses that created a national free-trade zone.

The trouble is that in the last 60 to 80 years, the federal Judiciary has made almost everything fall under the purview of the IC & GW clauses, giving Congress power far in excess of that envisioned by the founding fathers.

The Genii is out of the bottle, and no one today can seriously even imagine a return to a government such as we were governed under for the first hundred + years of our country's existance....but we had better try to curtail some of the more egregious examples of Federal unconstitutional overreaching of power if we wish to survive as a free nation.

Article 1-- Section 8 lays out the power granted to the Congress in 18 easily understood clauses, but by imputing "penumbras" and "emmanations" to these two clauses, allowing that they grant more power than they actually do, the judiciary has turned our government into something unrecognizable by any of the writers of that same Constitution.

What does all this have to do with the federal budget? Just this; IF we curtailed the government to those powers actually granted it under the Constitution, over half to three quarters of the current budget allocation expenditures would disappear. Use that money to pay off the current debt, repeal the Income tax law, and go to a National Sales tax (Fair Tax!!) and you would see a blossoming of prosperity and freedom not seen since the Revolution it'self.

To paraphrase an Icon of the Left; "you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one; I hope someday you'll join us, and all our country will live as one, in freedom".

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."

James Madison, the "Father of our Constitution"

Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell both have excellant articles on the (extraConstitutional) abrogation of power by the Congress. I suggest you read them as a starter education in exactly how the Constitution has been, and is continuing to be circumvented.

Section. 8.
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

Clause 9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

Clause 10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

Clause 12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

Clause 13: To provide and maintain a Navy;

Clause 14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

Clause 17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, byCession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And

Clause 18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Posted by Delftsman3 at May 18, 2005 02:03 PM