Thursday, May 3, 2012

What do we mean when we say small government, ie, constitutionally limited government?


Jim Robinson



Some of the areas/functions the federal government should not be involved in per the constitution (see enumerated powers of congress and the Bill of Rights, the 9th and 10th amendments, etc):

  1. Health
  2. Education
  3. Welfare
  4. Housing
  5. Mortgages
  6. Student loans
  7. Subsidies
  8. Health insurance
  9. Retirement insurance
  10. Mandating insurance contracts of any kind
  11. Trade unions
  12. Government workers unions (huge conflict of interest)
  13. Jobs (other than not creating an environment that kills them)
  14. Banking/finance
  15. Free markets
  16. The stock market
  17. The economy (other than not overstepping its constitutional bounds and creating havoc)
  18. The working environment
  19. Global warming
  20. Crime in general (other than treason, piracy, counterfeiting, etc)
  21. Marriage (gay or otherwise)
  22. Abortion (other protecting than the constitutional right to life)
  23. Infanticide (ditto)
  24. Euthanasia (ditto)
  25. Judicial activism
  26. Leveling the playing field for minorities
  27. Ditto for immigrants (legal or otherwise)
  28. Ditto for women
  29. Ditto for hispanics
  30. Ditto for gays
  31. Ditto for students
  32. Ditto for seniors
  33. Ditto for the poor
  34. Ditto for the middle class
  35. Ditto for singling out the wealthy for special punishment
  36. Ditto for any other class or special interest group (see equality under the law)
  37. Using the news media as propaganda organ
  38. Using the entertainment industry as propaganda organ
  39. Using educational institutions as socialist indoctrination centers
  40. Conducting war on talk radio
  41. Suppressing freedom of speech
  42. Oppressing freedom of religion
  43. Suppressing inter-state commerce (the commerce clause was intended to keep commerce flowing between the states with no restrictions or tariffs)
  44. Conducting war on coal, oil, gas, energy
  45. Conducting war on farming, fishing, mining, timber, manufacturing, industry
  46. Conducting war on religious freedom
  47. Conducting war on right to freely exercise religion
  48. Conducting war on Christianity
  49. Conducting war on right to keep and bear arms
  50. Conducting war on state powers
  51. Conducting war on liberty itself
  52. etc, etc, etc.
It's a never ending list and rapidly expanding as fast as our now virtually UNLIMITED unconstitutional BIG government is rapidly expanding, regardless of party in power.

Think about the thousands of areas where our federal government has granted itself powers to control and regulate, then compare them to the very short list of enumerated powers:
Section. 8.
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;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

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;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

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;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession 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

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.

See also:
AMENDMENT IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
AMENDMENT X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
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