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1/2/2009
What MORE do some Americans want Mr. Obama to do?
Much has been said since 9/11 – and more intently as President Bush’s tenure comes to an end – about the President and his VP violating the Constitution in any of a million places. Let it be said very clearly that I am not a constitutional scholar – and can’t even pretend to rightly determine the validity of these charges against the administration. You can go on and on about the issue if you’re of that mind, but what I really want to talk about is the Tenth Amendment to our great Constitution.
Liberals and progressives and anti-Bushies of all camps like to talk about violations of constitutional limitations on the power of the executive. But somehow, when talking about our Constitution being violated here or there or everywhere, they conveniently forget about limitations on the powers of Congress and the federal government as a whole that the short little Tenth Amendment sets down. (Emphases are mine.)
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.
Rep. Ron Paul’s applicable comments in The Revolution, are instructive.
Thomas Jefferson held that this principle [of the Tenth Amendment] formed the very foundation of our Constitution. It was a guarantee that the experience Americans endured under the British would not be repeated, and that political decisions would be made by their own local legislatures rather than by a distant central government that would be much more difficult, if not impossible, for them to control.
….The limitations the Constitution placed on the federal government had to be taken seriously if we expected to maintain a free society. There would always be a powerful temptation to allow the federal government to do something many people wanted, but that the Constitution did not authorize.
Boy, you said it. In spades. The “people” (that’s us, folks) have surely “wanted” lots and lots of stuff in recent decades. It’s everywhere you go. A caller with a question of a guest on a public radio talk show the other day asked what soon-to-be President Obama would be doing about year-round school.
Year-round school? This is not the President’s job!
You must have heard hundreds of similar examples. Obama will do this and he will do that. My, how he will help to lower the cost of tuition at our nation’s colleges and universities. And increase scholarships and the supply of teachers in rural areas and the numbers who will competently teach math and science. And then of course, there’s a project in every region of every state that’s begging for federal money. Many, many requests that assure the federal government will be involved in building our community streets and water systems and senior citizen housing developments – not to say salvaging banks and auto companies and mortgages on every street corner.
And it’s right here on FoxPolitics – eeek! Now… Robert Meyer is certainly no fan of an expanded federal government, but in his piece this week, he mentioned that “Obama must succeed in reversing America’s economic woes or we could be in for an extended season of economic doldrums.” It’s a defensible statement – we’re hearing it everywhere – and there’s much to argue (and many do) that the economy is a pretty important piece of the “General Welfare” clause of Article I, Section 8.
But here’s my point – isn’t it about time our first response as Americans should be to look to ourselves as primarily responsible for change? To our families and our houses of worship. And then to our communities (Anyone out there that’s thrown his or her hat in to run to serve on your local school board or City Council? The deadline for signatures is January 6 at 5:00!) and our non-profit community organizations. And then to our state government.
(The Tomah Journal is with me on this! - pointing out that crime prevention is your job and my job - and perhaps not the job of president-elect Obama. Love it.)
Continue to listen for it in these days leading up to the inauguration (and of course, over the next 4 years), even as Speaker Pelosi has a stimulus package ready for a President Obama to sign January 20. Geeesh! Enough already with asking the federal government to do more and more and more for us and for our families.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
"...the economy is a pretty important piece of the “General Welfare” clause of Article I, Section 8."
The general welfare of our country wouldn't be where it is if the Congress would have stuck to the Constitution, instead of sticking it to the Constitution!
The problems we see today date all the way back to what Rush refers to as "Roosevelt's Raw Deal." That would be the era when FDR (darling of the left) pointed us down the road to central government, federal entitlements and taxation without representation.
Over the years we've been taken off the gold standard (Jimmy Carter) so that we can simply print money and play governmental Monopoly with it; we've seen federal politicians' egos bloat along with their bank accounts, and we've seen a plethora of laws handed down from a central government that control our everyday lives. The hockey-stick ending to the sorry saga of the left began during the reign of Bubba, when the Congress passed laws that forced businesses to give my taxes to inner city baby factories that had no visible means of support.
Running for local office, even for the state legislature, won't stop the onslaught of unbridled federalism. The federal government has already, through the power of the tax levy, taken from us the authority delegated to the individual states and squandered it within the ridiculous confines of the formerly hallowed halls of Congress.
Our U.S. Senators decree that they will seat only the Senators they like, rather than the legally elected Senators as delegates from their respective states. They regulate, retain power and authority over, everything from wearing seatbelts in your own automobile to forcing you to pay for a "global warming" hoax with your hard-earned income.
The time has come for yet a new revolution in out country. It is time for those of us who believe in state's rights and local control to bolt from the "Grand Old Party" and form our own Conservative Party - a party that refuses to "reach across the aisle," in order to be more like the people in Washington who persist in driving us over a cliff, and day-by-day farther away from the Constitution they've rendered unrecognizable to it's authors.
Duke (Fri Jan 02 08:28:44 2009)
Bravo, Duke! And let's stop running Republicans who are more Left than Right. If people want to vote Democrat they'll vote for the real thing, not some RINO in Republican clothing.
C.R. Stevenson (Fri Jan 02 19:42:45 2009)
Jo, I appreciate your quoting my favorite politician, Dr. Ron Paul who has led the fight in favor of constitutionally limited government and individual rights for over 30 yrs. BTW, He is the original Dr. NO in Congress.
On third parties, let me add that a quarter century involved in 3rd party politics has me at best uncertain about the efficacy of going that route. Dr. Paul tried it, and went back to the GOP. And at a time when the leadership of BOTH parties in the state government were headed to prison, we elected a hack, instead of Ed Thompson. To be sure, Ed has his faults, but given the obvious bi-partisan corruption that continues to this day, it appears that a majority are so dedicated to either the D or R labels, that the likelihood of success outside the old parties is minimal. While I am so disgusted with the hypocrisy and lack of courage within the GOP that I have a hard time stomaching the party, freinds of mine ARE trying to reform it. I promise to join them if they can be successful. Til then, I will keep one toe in the water of partisan politics, and do my best inside the non-partisan Campaign for Liberty www.campaignforliberty.com to effect the changes we need, not the "change that (some weak minded and ignorant individuals) can believe in."
Regardless of political affiliation, if you believe in freedom, join C4L.
Ken Van Doren (Fri Jan 02 20:21:44 2009)
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