Rod & Betty Jo wrote:
Tim Daneliuk wrote:
No, it gives them a duty. The power to perform that duty is implied.
Are you saying that the Federal government is _forbidden_ to enact
legislation that is beneficial to the economy?

Yes.


A bit Odd....isn't the Supreme Court charged or empowered to determine legal
or illegal, the limits of federal power or what is or is not constitutional?

Well ... SOCTUS kind of seized more power than they were actually granted
by the Constitution back when they heard Marbury v. Madison. But in any
case, it doesn't matter if the SCOTUS does not choose to "Defend And Protect
The Constitution" as their swearing in declares. Defending And Protecting
does not mean making up new law from whole cloth as the recent courts
have done, nor does it include ignore clear overreaching by the legislature
which the court has been ignoring in large part since the time of FDR (and
possibly before.)


Did I miss a ruling that demonstrates your position? Are you not confusing
your own personal preference for the actual law of the land? Rod



No. I am reflecting the very well documented intent of the Framers that they
wanted a legal system of "enumerated powers". It something is not "enumerated"
as a power granted to the Federal government it is automatically forbidden
for the Feds to do. This is not some accidental thing. This was a conscious
and purposeful decision made when the Constitution was drafted and eventually
ratified. So -in this example - if the Federal government is acting upon one
of its enumerated powers and this happens to be beneficial to the economy, this
is not a problem. But if they act specifically and narrowly to benefit the
economy, this is forbidden because 'improving the economy' is not an enumerated
power granted to the Federal government.

I read the Declaration and the Constitution every single year. I also take a moment
at that time to read something from on the Framers or one of their intellectual
influencers like Locke. I am certain they would be disgusted with what the
Federal government has become: A low-grade do-gooding institution that
practices wealth redistribution at the point of a gun (or at least the
threat of same - try not paying your taxes and see what happens).

We have essentially abandoned the key precept of the
Constitution ("preserve Liberty") and replaced with a gooey feel-good version
of government as everyone's Mommy (the Liberals) or Daddy (the Conservatives).
Instead of "preserve Liberty" we now demand that "government should do good things",
we just don't agree on which "good things" they should do. This abandonment
of liberty as the central purpose of government comes at a very high price.
We are getting less and less liberty AND fewer and fewer "good things". This is
possible because of an unholy alliance between the legislature, executive branch,
SCOTUS, and, most of all, the voting public, who have turned their backs on what
actually made the American experiment work. In less than 5 decades of living here
(I am an immigrant) I have seen:

1) A decline in personal liberty

2) An increase in average taxation

3) An increasing portion of the population demanding whatever they want and
calling it a "right"

4) And increasing level of Federal government involvement in virtually
every aspect of what ought properly to be private: Education, savings, sexual choices,
healthcare, recreational substance use just to name a few ... NONE of which
exist as subjects of enumerated power for the Federal government.

5) A demand by the population that government solve all problems on their behalf.

In short, we shall surely get what we've asked for. A big, bloated, unaccountable
bureaucracy put in place by the sheeple so they can raid each other's wallets.
In the mean time Liberty has left the building (or is at leas on Her way out) ...

No, this is not *my* wishlist. It was the intent of the Framers. But it's too late.
Americans as a whole would rather loot each other than be free. I won't live long enough
to see the end game, and for that at least, I am grateful. But it is tragic that the
nation that transformed the world in less than 250 years - a world that had been a misery
for most people in the prior 10 millenia - will disappear with a whimper from bloated,
greedy, and dishonest citizens who want what they have not earned for themselves and
demand their government steal it from other people. RIP.

P.S. If you don't think so, ask yourself just why the dollar is so weak at the moment.
Here's a hint. By tinkering with monetary policy, the dollar can be weakened
so that old debt it paid back with relatively weaker dollars. Why do we
"need" to do that? Because the sheeple put the Feds on a major spending binge
ever since the 1960s, so we have debt - a lot of debt. I am always amused
to hear the anti-war bunch squealing about how much money is being spent on
the military. It is a pittance compared the sheeple's looting of the
treasure for their pet social entitlement programs.