<blockquote><i>"Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole-with their common aim of legal plunder-constitute socialism."
--Frederic Bastiat</i></blockquote>Whenever someone makes a statement like,
"Nowhere in our Constitution is there even a hint of authority for most of what Congress taxes and spends for today," there is always
some socialist in the wings ready with:<blockquote>Section 1, Article 8 of the
U.S. Constiution
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;</blockquote>Rarely do these redistributionist ponzi schemers cite the remaining clauses, which describe the Debts, commonDefense and general Welfare the Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises are supposed to pay for,:<blockquote>Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
Clause 8: 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;
Clause 9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
Clause 10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Clause 12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
Clause 13: To provide and maintain a Navy;
Clause 14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
Clause 16: 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;
Clause 17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, byCession 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
Clause 18: 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.</blockquote>When I discover that Americans work
about 70 days year to cover our federal tax "obligation," I wonder what my "obligation" should be paying for. I think that the natural duty of government is to excercise force. I believe that is the root function of government. Each of us loans our violent potential to the government to use on our behalf in the case of invasion, assault or theft (while reserving the right in those cases where the government can't act timely or becomes despotic). Clauses 2 - 18 Section 1, Article 8 of the
U.S. Constiution appear to affirm my opinion. Consequently, I still expect to pay for appropriate legislation, the maintenance of courts, and national defense. In Section 1, Article 8 of the
U.S. Constiution, nowhere do you find:<blockquote>
Non Existent Clause 19: The Congress shall have Power to take the money you would save for retirement, and subsidize someone else's retirement with it.
Non Existent Clause 20: The Congress shall have Power to take the money you would save for healthcare, and subsidize someone else's healthcare with it.
Non Existent Clause 21: The Congress shall have Power to take the money you would save for your dream of home ownership, and subsidize someone else's dream of home ownership with it.
Non Existent Clause 22: The Congress shall have Power to take your grocery money, and subsidize someone else's grocery bill with it.
Non Existent Clause 23: The Congress shall have Power to take the money you would save for children's education, and subsidize the education of someone else's children with it.
Non Existent Clause 24: The Congress shall have Power to take your wages, and subsidize someone else's wages with them.
Non Existent Clause 25: The Congress shall have Power to take the money you would save for an HDTV and home theater system to subsidize a trip for 4 dudes to the FREAKING MOON!!!!!!</blockquote>My gripe is that
about 36% of the discretionary budget has nothing to do with the constitutional obligations of the government, nor does 97% of the mandatory spending portion of the budget, making $1.8 trillion of a $2.47 trillion budget, or nearly 73% of federal spending (or call it ~$6,000 per person) having nothing to do with national defense or running the courts, but rather redistributing wealth as our government sees fit. I often wonder why we tolerate these incursions upon our lives and liberty.<blockquote><i>"Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
--Daniel Webster</i></blockquote>Yes. It seems that socialists, both Democrat and Republican, established new and spurious "rights" as entitlements--such as Social Security, Welfare, Medicare/Medicaid, Farm Subsidies, Corporate Bail-outs, Public Education, Space Travel and Art Endowments--and then use the argument from rights as rationale to provide those entitlements. Under the moral guise of freedom and prosperity are our elected representatives enslaving and stealing from us, and in doing so, making us slave owners and thieves as the beneficiaries of this action--and to what ends? Personal power is my guess. The power to compell people to their bidding.<blockquote><i>"The goal of the "liberals"-as it emerges from the record of the past decades-was to smuggle this country into welfare statism by means of single, concrete, specific measures, enlarging the power of the government a step at a time, never permitting these steps to be summed up into principles, never permitting their direction to be identified or the basic issue to be named. Thus, statism was to come, not by vote r by violence, but by slow rot-by a long process of evasion and epistemological corruption, leading to a fait accompli.(The goal of the "conservative" was only to retard that process.)"
--Ayn Rand</i></blockquote>
Yay President Bush! :usa:
