For the past four Littlestuff Weekenders I’ve listed the enumerated powers from Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. Today we’ll do a “quickie” analysis of some of them, and cover the remainder next week. As we go forward, we intend to follow a similar process with the Amendments and the other Articles.
Congress has the “power” to collect taxes. That is not a mandate. Duties (manufacturing fees), Imposts (tariffs, import and export) and Excise (Sales). There is no Constitutional provision for taxing labor or income. The 16th Amendment was designed to change that. Also, the taxes levied shall be uniform throughout the nation…hmmm, might find some clinkers regarding this clause.
Congress has the “power” to pay the debts---it doesn’t say they can do it with ”funny money.”
Provide for the common defense—not aggressive offense, not selective defense.
Provide for the general welfare—progressives, and their judges, have been driving trucks through this clause. When you examine the discussions surrounding ratification, you discover that providing for the general welfare was specifically intended to limit congressional goodie-packaging to legislation that benefited everyone in every state. No picking winners and losers. No localized pork barrel spending. No coercive bribery grants to states who comply with unconstitutional mandates. Nearly all domestic expenditures by the federal government are in violation of the intent of this clause.
To borrow money. Yes, that one they understand.
To regulate commerce—foreign, domestic and with tribes: On the domestic front their purpose is to assure free flowing goods and services among the states. This clause, too, has been repeatedly misused to allow the federal to regulate everything.
The uniform rule of naturalization was included to assure that a legal immigrant who met the federal criteria would be considered a citizen of the United States in every state.
Uniform bankruptcy laws may soon be tested for their application to states and other local governments.
Our analysis is a mere one quarter of the way through one section of the Constitution, and it is extremely difficult to discover just one enumerated power that is currently implemented as the Founders designed it.
We’ve added some additional outlets for our columns. We can now be found at the Campaign for Liberty and the Tea Party Nation. Here are the links:
Over the course of my life, I’ve had friends who were public sector employees and teachers. Years ago they were vastly underpaid when compared to most of corporate America. The times have changed. The public sector is no longer the poverty-stricken stepchild. Their pay and benefits are far more favorable than are those for their private sector cohorts. That’s not good enough these days. Because the public sector has been unionized by some of the most leftist organizations in the nation (and world), they’ve gone from underpaid public servants to greedy, demanding, socialistic and threatening mobs. Their fanaticism will lead to their demise. Rather than assuming a reasonable posture, their strident demands and threats of violence will force many states and local governments to dissolve the contracts and begin anew (please re-apply for your new non-union job). Their incessant cries of “union busters” will become self-fulfilling prophecy as they whine, moan, groan, scream and holler about every little concession in these dire economic circumstances. They will over play their hand, and they will lose.
So, is it intimidation or theater? The goings-on at our various state capitols are dramatic. Can they be serious?
There is a great program coming to Cincinnati on March 5th sponsored by the Tenth Amendment Center and co-sponsored by Ohio Liberty Council, Cincinnati 912 Project, Cincinnati Tea Party.
Nullify Now! Cincinnati
Saturday March 5th, 6:00pm at the Harriet Tubman Theater,
50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati, OH, 45202
Speakers include: Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Jacob Huebert, Maurice Thompson, Michael Boldin and more
Harold Thomas and Jeremiah Arn will be attending, and we hope to see you there, too. Go to the website of one of the sponsoring organizations for tickets.
Never take your liberty for granted, or someone else will take it away.
Here’s a short essay by Frederick Bastiat that I suggest you read. “The Law” You can get a download here.
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