1. Total US debt is $64.2 trillion.
The Final Hour: 65 Trillion - U.S. Financial Obligations Exceed The Entire World's GDP
2. Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, is known as the Taxing and Spending Clause.[1] It is the clause that gives the federal government of the United States its power of taxation. Component parts of this clause are known as the General Welfare Clause and the Uniformity Clause.Taxing and Spending Clause - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3. In his farewell address of our first President, George Washington, in reference to our constitution, warned, "Let there be no change [in the Constitution] by usurpation. For though this, in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed."
4. Up until 1937 the Congress of the United States conducted its business within the boundaries of seventeen enumerated powers granted under Article I Section 8 of the United States Constitution; these powers defined clearly the areas within which Congress could enact legislation including the allocation of funds and levying of taxes. Anything not set down in the enumerated powers was considered outside the purview of the national government and hence, a matter for the states. There were occasional challenges to the concept but it was not until Franklin Roosevelt's new deal that it was attacked in deadly earnestness.
The General Welfare Clause
5. During the Depression, FDR asked for an receive unprecedented powers. Some poorly crafted legislation went to the courts. The first of the new deal statutes to reach the Supreme Court for review, arrived in January 1935. In the sixteen months following, the court decided ten major cases or groups of cases involving new deal statutes. In eight instances out of ten the decisions went in favor of the United States Constitution and against the new deal. Eight of the ten pieces of "must legislation" were found to be unconstitutional. Op. cit.
a. Under FDRs threats to pack the court, they threw in the towel. In doing so, they said in effect, Congress would no longer be held to enumerated powers but instead could tax and spend for anything; so long as it was for "general welfare." The supreme court surrendered to the new deal on the most fundamental of constitutional issues. Ibid.
6. Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society, [1965] was FDR on steroids! His programs signaled the commencement of the full implementation of "Steward Machine Co. v. Davis"--1937.
a. The decision in Steward signaled the Courts acceptance of a broad interpretation of Congressional power to influence state laws.
6. Consider the national debt. How did this happen? A "General Welfare Congress" [session after session] made this happen. With no limits on their taxing and spending power, they became like children in a candy store.
7. The limits on federal power to legislate for the "general welfare" remains, to this date, undefined and presumably, boundless. James Madison, when asked if the "general welfare" clause was a grant of power, replied in 1792, in a letter to Henry Lee,
If not only the means but the objects are unlimited, the parchment [the Constitution] should be thrown into the fire at once. Brant, Irving The Fourth President - A Life of James Madison, p. 257.
If it has excaped anyone's attention, FDR, and LBJ, the primary culprits, were both Progressive Democrats.
"and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death"
ee cummings
The Final Hour: 65 Trillion - U.S. Financial Obligations Exceed The Entire World's GDP
2. Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, is known as the Taxing and Spending Clause.[1] It is the clause that gives the federal government of the United States its power of taxation. Component parts of this clause are known as the General Welfare Clause and the Uniformity Clause.Taxing and Spending Clause - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3. In his farewell address of our first President, George Washington, in reference to our constitution, warned, "Let there be no change [in the Constitution] by usurpation. For though this, in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed."
4. Up until 1937 the Congress of the United States conducted its business within the boundaries of seventeen enumerated powers granted under Article I Section 8 of the United States Constitution; these powers defined clearly the areas within which Congress could enact legislation including the allocation of funds and levying of taxes. Anything not set down in the enumerated powers was considered outside the purview of the national government and hence, a matter for the states. There were occasional challenges to the concept but it was not until Franklin Roosevelt's new deal that it was attacked in deadly earnestness.
The General Welfare Clause
5. During the Depression, FDR asked for an receive unprecedented powers. Some poorly crafted legislation went to the courts. The first of the new deal statutes to reach the Supreme Court for review, arrived in January 1935. In the sixteen months following, the court decided ten major cases or groups of cases involving new deal statutes. In eight instances out of ten the decisions went in favor of the United States Constitution and against the new deal. Eight of the ten pieces of "must legislation" were found to be unconstitutional. Op. cit.
a. Under FDRs threats to pack the court, they threw in the towel. In doing so, they said in effect, Congress would no longer be held to enumerated powers but instead could tax and spend for anything; so long as it was for "general welfare." The supreme court surrendered to the new deal on the most fundamental of constitutional issues. Ibid.
6. Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society, [1965] was FDR on steroids! His programs signaled the commencement of the full implementation of "Steward Machine Co. v. Davis"--1937.
a. The decision in Steward signaled the Courts acceptance of a broad interpretation of Congressional power to influence state laws.
6. Consider the national debt. How did this happen? A "General Welfare Congress" [session after session] made this happen. With no limits on their taxing and spending power, they became like children in a candy store.
7. The limits on federal power to legislate for the "general welfare" remains, to this date, undefined and presumably, boundless. James Madison, when asked if the "general welfare" clause was a grant of power, replied in 1792, in a letter to Henry Lee,
If not only the means but the objects are unlimited, the parchment [the Constitution] should be thrown into the fire at once. Brant, Irving The Fourth President - A Life of James Madison, p. 257.
If it has excaped anyone's attention, FDR, and LBJ, the primary culprits, were both Progressive Democrats.
"and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death"
ee cummings
