US Constitution opinion

United States Constitution

Article 1: Section. 8.

*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; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

*To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

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

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

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

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

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

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;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

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

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

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

To provide and maintain a Navy;

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

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

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;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession 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

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.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Since so many of the comments I’ve heard from people indicates that you know of this document, but may not have read it recently, I’ve included it for convenience. This is the part that lays out what congress is allowed to spend money on.

There are so many instances in which the Federal Government has usurped power; it’s hard to know where to start. It is not just the current & previous administrations that is to blame; it goes back Wilson & was worst under the New Deal. Unfortunately the plans for a time machine that I bought on the internet didn’t work out so I can’t go back to fix the past, we can only fight the fight going forward.

The most misleading term seems to be promoting the general welfare. The definition, supported by James Madison & Thomas Jefferson, is that the power to tax & spend did not confer upon congress the right to do whatever it thought best for the nation, but only to further the ends specifically enumerated in the Constitution.

An example of the original meaning comes when congress refused to fund the dredging of the Savannah River because it was located entirely in the State of Georgia, therefore only of benefit to the State of Georgia. At the same time it approved the lighthouse at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay & a bridge across the Cumberland Gap, these being interstate project of benefit to commerce. This is the same rational that gave us the Interstate Highway System.

As to the borrowing clause, George Washington stated in his farewell address;

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit, One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.

The power to borrow is also the responsibility to maintain our good credit. By excessive spending this administration has put our credit rating in jeopardy. The amount of spending being proposed will destroy any chance we have to recover economically.

On the rules for bankruptcy clause, as James Madison Observed in Federalist #42, “The power of establishing uniform laws of bankruptcy is so intimately connected with the regulation of commerce, and will prevent so many frauds where the parties or their property may lie or be removed into different States that the expediency of it seems not likely to be drawn into question.” To allow some banks and financial groups to fail while bailing out others is not “uniform”.

On the ninth & tenth amendments, they should be read together.

The ninth was to prevent the application of statutory rule of interpretation, i.e. by including one thing you exclude all others. It was also to confirm the republican principles of the Federalist & the Anti-Federalist alike, that the people retain their communal right of self-governance. The libertarian point of view on the ninth is that it point to a[i] set of judicially enforceable unenumerated rights (natural rights) that no government can legitimately deny. Unfortunately in 1937, the Supreme Court gave up on trying to enforce this amendment, & in 1965 (Griswold v. Connecticut) the Court twisted it’s meaning to something unrecognizable. This proves why depending on the Court to properly interpret the law is dangerous.

The tenth- reserving to the people of the states the powers not delegated to the US government- was designed to confirm the separate juridical competency of the respective states in relation to the federal governments limited powers.

When the government decides to use tax law to deal with a non- existing problem like global warming, & redistribute our wealth around the world, they have gone too far. Even if they are allowed to regulate these items under the Constitution, they cannot commit a violation while enforcing the rules. When the system proposed will allow our representatives to give/sell “Carbon Credits” to businesses, the stage it set for massive corruption. The takeover of our healthcare market has no bases in the Constitution. The healthcare system can be reformed without this massive takeover. We are told the government is the answer, I say the government is the problem.