Congressional Constitutional Contempt

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/07/congressionalconstitutionalcontempt.htm

A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER E. WILLIAMS
RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2007, AND THEREAFTER

Congressional Constitutional Contempt

Here's the oath of office administered to members of
the House and Senate: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm)
that I will support and defend the Constitution of the
United States against all enemies, foreign or
domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance
to the same; that I take this obligation freely,
without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion;
and that I will well and faithfully discharge the
duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So
help me God." A similar oath is sworn to by the
president and federal judges.

In each new Congress since 1995, Rep. John Shadegg,
R-Ariz., has introduced the Enumerated Powers Act (HR
1359). The Act, which has yet to be enacted into law,
reads: "Each Act of Congress shall contain a concise
and definite statement of the constitutional authority
relied upon for the enactment of each portion of that
Act. The failure to comply with this section shall
give rise to a point of order in either House of
Congress. The availability of this point of order does
not affect any other available relief."

Simply put, if enacted, the Enumerated Powers Act
would require Congress to specify the basis of
authority in the U.S. Constitution for the enactment
of laws and other congressional actions. HR 1359 has
28 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.

When Shadegg introduced the Enumerated Powers Act, he
explained that the Constitution gives the federal
government great, but limited, powers. Its framers
granted Congress, as the central mechanism for
protecting liberty, specific rather than general
powers. The Constitution gives Congress 18 specific
enumerated powers, spelled out mostly in Article 1,
Section 8. The framers reinforced that enumeration by
the 10th Amendment, which reads: "The powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved for
the States respectively, or to the people."

Just a few of the numerous statements by our founders
demonstrate that their vision and the vision of
Shadegg's Enumerated Powers Act are one and the same.
James Madison, in explaining the Constitution in
Federalist Paper No. 45, said, "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. The
former will be exercised principally on external
objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign
commerce."

Regarding the "general welfare" clause so often used
as a justification for bigger government, Thomas
Jefferson said, "Congress has not unlimited powers to
provide for the general welfare, but only those
specifically enumerated." James Madison said, "If
Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be
done by money, and will promote the general welfare,
the government is no longer a limited one possessing
enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to
particular exceptions."

Congressmen, openly refusing to live up to their oath
of office, exhibit their deep contempt for our
Constitution. The question I've not been able to
answer satisfactorily is whether that contempt simply
mirrors a similar contempt held by most of the
American people. I'm sure that if founders such as
James Madison, John Adams or Thomas Jefferson were
campaigning for the 2008 presidential elections,
expressing their vision of the federal government's
role, today's Americans would run them out of town on
a rail. Does that hostility reflect constitutional
ignorance whereby the average American thinks the
Constitution authorizes Congress to do anything upon
which they can get a majority vote or anything that's
a good idea? Or, are Americans contemptuous of the
constitutional limitations placed on the federal
government?

I salute the bravery of Rep. Shadegg and the 28
co-sponsors of the Enumerated Powers Act. They have a
monumental struggle. Congress is not alone in its
constitutional contempt, but is joined by the White
House and particularly the constitutionally derelict
U.S. Supreme Court.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at
George Mason University. To find out more about Walter
E. Williams and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators
Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com

A Visitor From The Past

I had a dream the other night, I didn't understand.
A figure walking through the mist, with flintlock in his hand.
His clothes were torn and dirty, as he stood there by my bed.
He took off his three-cornered hat, and speaking low, he said:

"We fought a revolution to secure our liberty.
We wrote the Constitution, as a shield from tyranny.
For generations, this legacy we gave,
In this, the land of the free and home of the brave."

"The Freedom we secured for you, we hoped you'd always keep,
But tyrants labored endlessly while your parents were asleep.
Your freedom gone, your courage lost, you're no more than a slave,
In this, the land of the free and home of the brave."

"You buy permits to travel, and permits to own a gun,
Permits to start a business, or to build a place for one.
On land that you believe you own, you pay a yearly rent.
Although you have no voice in choosing how the money's spent."

"Your children must attend a school that doesn't educate.
Your Christian values can't be taught, according to the state.
You read about the current news, in a regulated press.
You pay a tax you do not owe, to please the I.R.S."

"Your money is no longer made of Silver or of Gold.
You trade your wealth for paper, so your life can be controlled.
You pay for crimes that make our Nation, turn from God in shame.
You've taken Satan's number, as you've traded in your name."

"You've given government control to those who do you harm,
So they can padlock churches, and steal the family farm.
And keep our country deep in debt, put men of God in jail,
Harass your fellow countrymen, while corrupted courts prevail."

"Your public servants don't uphold the solemn oath they've sworn.
Your daughters visit doctors, so their children won't be born.
Your leaders ship artillery, and guns to foreign shores,
And send your sons to slaughter, fighting other people's wars."

"Can you regain the freedom for which I fought and died?
Or don't you have the courage, or the faith to stand with pride?
Are there no more values for which you'll fight to save?
Or do you wish your children, to live in fear and be a slave?"

"People of the Republic, arise and take a stand!
Defend the Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land!
Stop defending democracy, which can never stand!
Preserve our Great Republic, and God-given Right!
And pray to God to keep the torch of Freedom burning bright!"

As I awoke he vanished, in the mist from whence he came.
His words were true, we are not Free, we have ourselves to blame.
For even now as tyrants, trample each God-given Right,
we only watch and tremble, too afraid to stand and fight.

If he stood by your bedside, in a dream, while you're asleep,
And wonders what remains of our Rights he fought to keep,
What would be your answer, if he called out from the grave:
"Is this still the land of the free and home of the brave?"

Author Unknown

Thomas Jefferson - Peace and War - 1810

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"In times of peace the people look most to their representatives;
but in war, to the executive solely."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Caeser Rodney, 10 February 1810)

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America
(1218)

Thomas Jefferson on Taxes - 1784

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by
the individual."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to James Madison, 1784)

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition),
Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 4:15.

James Madison Tyranny - 1788

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is
stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty
than that on which the objection is founded. The accumulation of
all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same
hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary,
self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very
definition of tyranny."

-- James Madison (Federalist No. 48, 1 February 1788)

Reference: Madison, Federalist No. 47.

Alexander Hamilton on the Constitution - 1802

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"[T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to
cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political
foes - rejecting all changes but through the channel itself
provides for amendments."

-- Alexander Hamilton (letter to James Bayard, April 1802)

Reference: Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton,
Frisch, ed. (511)

Ben Franklin on Living Well

The Patriot Post
Founders' Quote Daily

"Wish not so much to live long as to live well."

-- Benjamin Franklin (Poor Richard's Almanack, June 1746)

Reference: Franklin: Writings, Lemay, Library of America (1209)