What Our Constitution Permits
by Walter E. Williams
Here's the House of Representatives new rule: "A bill or joint
resolution may not be introduced unless the sponsor has submitted for
printing in the Congressional Record a statement citing as specifically
as practicable the power or powers granted to Congress in the
Constitution to enact the bill or joint resolution." Unless a
congressional bill or resolution meets this requirement, it cannot be
introduced.
If the House of Representatives had the courage to follow through on this
rule, their ability to spend and confer legislative favors would be
virtually eliminated. Also, if the rule were to be applied to existing
law, they'd wind up repealing at least two-thirds to three-quarters of
congressional spending.
You might think, for example, that there's constitutional authority for
Congress to spend for highway construction and bridges. President James
Madison on March 3, 1817 vetoed a public works bill saying: "Having
considered the bill this day presented to me entitled 'An act to set
apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements,' and which sets
apart and pledges funds 'for constructing roads and canals, and improving
the navigation of water courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and
give security to internal commerce among the several States, and to
render more easy and less expensive the means and provisions for the
common defense,' I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in
reconciling the bill with the Constitution of the United States and to
return it with that objection to the House of Representatives, in which
it originated."
Madison, who is sometimes referred to as the father of our Constitution,
added to his veto statement, "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."
Here's my question to any member of the House who might vote for funds
for "constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of
water courses": Was Madison just plain constitutionally ignorant or
has the Constitution been amended to permit such spending?
What about handouts to poor people, businesses, senior citizens and
foreigners?
Madison said, "Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the
government."
In 1854, President Franklin Piece vetoed a bill to help the mentally ill,
saying, "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public
charity. (To approve the measure) would be contrary to the letter and
spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which
the Union of these States is founded."
President Grover Cleveland vetoed a bill for charity relief, saying,
"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the
Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General
Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering
which is in no manner properly related to the public service or
benefit."
Again, my question to House members who'd vote for handouts is: Were
these leaders just plain constitutionally ignorant or mean-spirited, or
has our Constitution been amended to authorize charity?
Suppose a congressman attempts to comply with the new rule by asserting
that his measure is authorized by the Constitution's general welfare
clause. Here's what Thomas Jefferson said: "Congress has not
unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those
specifically enumerated."
Madison added, "With respect to the two words 'general welfare,' I
have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected
with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a
metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host
of proofs was not contemplated by its creators."
John Adams warned, "A Constitution of Government once changed from
Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost
forever." I am all too afraid that's where our nation stands today
and the blame lies with the American people.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/williams-w/w-williams66.1.html
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- What Our Constitution Permits MJ
