Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Congress Strikes Again

Happy New Year to all.

With the start of the New Year, we have not been disappointed by Congress in their immediate return to partisan agenda politics. Democrats have decided that they no longer need or are even interested in any input from their Republican colleagues and therefore are essentially cutting them out the process entirely as they force through a healthcare bill that American citizens have resoundingly rejected. These members of Congress want to charge us all more for less and penalize those that do not want to buy their product. I personally view this as taxation without representation. If my representative is not even allowed to participate in the process, this is not the intent of our forefathers when they established Congress. However, there is very little that Congress has done in the last few years that is consistent with the intent of the founders and the wording of our Constitution. This document is being shredded before our very eyes. Where is the authority granted in the Constitution that would allow most of this legislation? Article 1, section 8, clause 3, often referred to as the Commerce Clause states “The Congress shall have the power to…. Regulate Commerce with foreign nations and among the several states and with Indian Tribes.” It says “regulate”, not “operate.” It says regulate among the states, not within the states. The clear intent both in the wording and in the Federalist papers was to regulate to ensure free and open trade between the states. It was not to tell people what they had to buy, from whom they had to buy, or to create a federal business that competed with private commerce. The job of the federal government was and is to regulate, but they have failed in that responsibility as well. It is the failure to regulate that has caused the loss of competition, unfair business practices, and other unethical and illegal behaviors. This is a clear failure of Congress, the Administration, the courts, and the voters who elected them to represent their views. We are all to blame for this massive incompetence and destruction of the values and principles set out in the Constitution.

Why do American’s allow their government to ignore the very document that sets out the limits of the authority that each of these governing bodies is given? Why do we give away our freedoms so easily when prior generations sacrificed their lives to achieve them for us? Others around the world are still dying in order to give those rights to their children. Recently, Congress decided to take over the board rooms of private companies, make them pay back monies earned under contract, and even pay additional taxes. Legislators once again ignored the Constitution and decided to punish certain members of those businesses although they had committed no crime. The Constitution states “No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed”. The Supreme Court in 1946 in US v. Lovett defined it this way. Legislative acts, no matter what their form, that apply either to named individuals or to easily ascertainable members of a group in such a way as to inflict punishment on them without a judicial trial are bills of attainder prohibited by the Constitution. These acts by Congress certainly seem to meet those conditions. While we leave these matters to the Constitutional lawyers to sort out, we the people are suppose to decide what we want them to mean too. We have a responsibility to be informed, to understand our Constitution, and to elect those people who will uphold those principles as sacred. Those who don’t must be removed. Those who intentionally ignore them fail their oath of office and are acting in a treasonous manner. Citizens who value their Constitution must never politely sit silently at home or in public and allow this to happen. We must stand up for what we believe. We must demand that our Constitution be respected. We must take back our freedoms. We must stand up for America.