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Comatose_Constitution.txt
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1996-07-08
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153 lines
From the Radio Free Michigan archives
ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot
If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to
bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu.
------------------------------------------------
THE COMATOSE CONSTITUTION
By GeryD@aol.com
Our national government is out of control. It is $5 trillion in debt. It
has spent $5 trillion on welfare and the problem has gotten worse. It has
interfered in the medical industry and as a result, health care costs have
skyrocketed. The government's solution is to take it complete control of it.
It is in the process of taking over the education system. Without increased
taxes (read that income redistribution) Social Security will go bankrupt in
twenty years. The national government spends billions of dollars for local
pork barrel projects.
How did this come about? What happened that would cause such a
mess? Has the Constitution failed us? Should we toss it aside and start
all over? Of course not, the problem is the national government has
abandoned the U.S. Constitution. They have quietly put it to sleep,
especially in the past thirty years, to the extent that it is now comatose.
Clearly 60% of the spending and regulations are unconstitutional. I would
dare anyone to tell me where the Constitution empowers the national
government to do anything in education, welfare, medical care, etc. (In
this discussion, we will not talk about how the government ignores selective
amendments and then "discovers" new protected rights for selective
groups.)
Many proponents of big government believe that the phrase "to provide for
the common defense and general welfare of the United States" (Section 8,
Article I, U.S. Constitution) empowers the national government to do what it
wants, as long as it is for "general welfare". Let us note first that the
government is authorized to levy taxes for the GENERAL welfare. That
could be understood as a restrictive clause, approving taxation for the
benefit of all, but not for any part of the population or peoples in the
country. What was being guarded against by this restriction was the
levying of taxes on the whole people to pay for benefits for some people in
some class, locale, state, or region of the country. In other words, the
general welfare is not taxing the many for the benefit of the few. There was
a definite interest in the Constitutional Convention to restrict such
practices. For example, at one point in the proceedings, Benjamin Franklin
proposed that the general government be given "a power to provide for
cutting canals where deemed necessary." Roger Sherman objected. "The
expense in such cases, will fall on the United States, and the benefit
accrue to the places where the canals may be cut." Franklin's motion was
defeated by a vote of 8 states to 3.
While the clause may authorize taxation to finance certain powers, it in
itself does not authorize or grant those powers. The clause in question
does not authorize expenditure for the general welfare; it does not authorize
spending for any program. Let us look at the general context of the clause
under consideration, " The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect
Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the
common Defense and general Welfare of the United States...." The men
who wrote the Constitution did not assume that by granting the power to
tax in order to pay debts that they had authorized indebtedness. In
actuality, the very next sentence authorizes Congress "To borrow Money
on the credit of the United States." If they had already authorized
indebtness, why put it in again? Nor did they assume that by authorizing
taxation to pay for the common defense that they had granted the power to
bring into being a military establishment. On the contrary, the earlier
authorization is followed by a list of powers to accomplish this purpose. In
this enumeration congress is authorized "To raise and support Armies....;
To provide and maintain a Navy; to make rules for the Government and
Regulation of the land and naval Forces..." If the power to provide for the
common defense had been granted in the taxing power, each of these
powers would have been redundant. Redundancies are
commonplace in legal documents, of course; lawyers are notorious for
piling them on one another, but the Constitution is remarkably free of
redundancies.
Indeed, the powers which the Founders reckoned necessary to the general
welfare of the United States are enumerated. Among them are the power of
Congress to enact uniform laws on bankruptcies, to coin money, to fix
standards of weights and measures, to establish post offices
and post roads, and the like. There are no sweeping grants of power in the
Constitution; powers granted are described in specific detail so as to make
reasonably clear their limits. The common sense question one must ask
oneself, if the Founding Fathers intended for the national government to
have essentially unlimited powers in the name of "providing for the general
welfare", why did they specifally enumerate certain powers (Section 8,
Article 1) and then specifically restrict the national government to those
powers (10th amendment)? The writers had recently fought a war against a
government that felt it had no limits when it came to providing for the
"general welfare" and were not about to install a government that had a
large loop hole to empower itself. These Founders had a strong belief in
limited government. Thus, the powers that are not specifically enumerated
were reserved to the states or to the people by the 10th Amendment, the
most important , and , unfortunately, ignored amendment there is.
Some may say that these are merely the views of a "radical" right winger.
Let us see what other "radicals" had to say. James Madison, as
President in 1817 , when he was presented with a bill for making internal
improvements (canal cuts), vetoed it on constitutional grounds. In his
veto,
Madison said, in part "The legislative powers vested in Congress are
specified and enumerated in the eighth section of the first article of the
Constitution, and it does not appear that the power proposed to be
exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers..." But certainly if
it
is for the "general welfare" it is okay. Regarding the general welfare phrase
specifically, he said: "To refer to the power in the question to the clause
'to
provide for the common defense and general welfare' would be contrary to
the established and consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the
special and careful enumeration of powers which follow the clause as
nugatory <of no effect> and improper. Such a view of the Constitution
would have the effect of giving to Congress a general power of legislation
instead of the defined and limited one hitherto understood to belong to
them..."
James Monroe, in 1822, also when vetoing a bill he considered
unconstitutional said, "If the power exist, it must be either because it has
been specifically granted to the United States or that it is incidental to
some power which has been granted. If we examine the specific grants of
power we do not find it among them, nor is it incidental to any power which
has been specifically granted." He continued in an added paper to his veto
message , "Have Congress a right to raise and appropriate the money to
any and to every purpose according to their will and pleasure? They
certainly have not, the Government of the United States is a limited
Government, instituted for great national purposes, and for those only."
If the Founders did not believe in an all empowering statement, and the
structure of the Constitution clearly demonstrates there is no all
empowering statement, why does the national government assume there
is. It is simply because it wants more power and the people do not
know their Constitution well enough to hold their elected representatives
accountable. As Thomas Jefferson said, "The natural progress of things is
for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." But what can be done
about it? The first and most important step is to elect people who know
and believe in the U. S. Constitution. Whenever any legislation comes up,
please request from your congressperson, where does the
Constitution, specifically empower the national government to do this. You
will be amaze by the answers. I have had one congressman tell me that the
government can do anything that the Constitution does not explicitly PREVENT.
So much for the 10th amendment.
------------------------------------------------
(This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the
Radio Free Michigan archives by the archive maintainer.
All files are ZIP archives for fast download.
E-mail bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu)