DGS49
Diamond Member
Essentially, the story of our Constitution goes like this: After the Declaration of Independence, there were thirteen colonies that transitioned to mini-COUNTRIES (a "State" is a country, not a subdivision of a country) that generally agreed that they needed to combine in some way, but disagreed about how.
The ultimate deal was that they would centralize the government functions where it made sense to do them collectively, but retain all other government functions for themselves. The listing of the functions that were ceded to the new central government are listed in Article I, Section 8...the "powers" of Congress.
They include things like printing money, funding the Armed Forces and the post office, regulating commerce with foreign countries and commerce among (but not within) the different states, and so on. It all makes good sense.
The Tenth Amendment is the flip side of that coin. It says in essence that the powers of the central government are detailed in the Constitution, and ALL OTHER POWERS are reserved to the States and the private sector. So if Congress does something that goes outside the powers listed in Article I, it is unconstitutional.
Given how Congress spends our money these days, the most astounding thing about Article I is that NONE of Congress' powers includes the power to convey any benefit to any individual person. That would include food, healthcare, housing, education, or cash. Congress lacks the Constitutional power to fund any of these benefits. NPR? Department of Education? Are you kidding me?
The principle is illustrated by President Grover Cleveland's veto in 1887 of the "Texas Seed Bill." He explained that the bill was unconstitutional because Congress lacked the power to provide any benefit to individuals.
And guess what: Nothing in the Constitution has changed since 1887; the same principle still applies.
Constitutional illiterates like to point to the "general welfare" wording in Article I, but if their reading of Article I were valid there would have been no point in detailing the powers laid out in Section 8.
Do you want a balanced budget? Stop the unconstitutional spending. Done.
Social Security and Medicare are a separate matter altogether, as they are theoretically not funded by taxes. I'm willing to argue those programs, but they are not part of this discussion.
The ultimate deal was that they would centralize the government functions where it made sense to do them collectively, but retain all other government functions for themselves. The listing of the functions that were ceded to the new central government are listed in Article I, Section 8...the "powers" of Congress.
They include things like printing money, funding the Armed Forces and the post office, regulating commerce with foreign countries and commerce among (but not within) the different states, and so on. It all makes good sense.
The Tenth Amendment is the flip side of that coin. It says in essence that the powers of the central government are detailed in the Constitution, and ALL OTHER POWERS are reserved to the States and the private sector. So if Congress does something that goes outside the powers listed in Article I, it is unconstitutional.
Given how Congress spends our money these days, the most astounding thing about Article I is that NONE of Congress' powers includes the power to convey any benefit to any individual person. That would include food, healthcare, housing, education, or cash. Congress lacks the Constitutional power to fund any of these benefits. NPR? Department of Education? Are you kidding me?
The principle is illustrated by President Grover Cleveland's veto in 1887 of the "Texas Seed Bill." He explained that the bill was unconstitutional because Congress lacked the power to provide any benefit to individuals.
And guess what: Nothing in the Constitution has changed since 1887; the same principle still applies.
Constitutional illiterates like to point to the "general welfare" wording in Article I, but if their reading of Article I were valid there would have been no point in detailing the powers laid out in Section 8.
Do you want a balanced budget? Stop the unconstitutional spending. Done.
Social Security and Medicare are a separate matter altogether, as they are theoretically not funded by taxes. I'm willing to argue those programs, but they are not part of this discussion.
