A Plan to Return to the U.S. Constitution

Page 1 Page 2

Our great nation was founded on principles of limited government. The founders knew too well how easily a government that is too powerful and unaccountable will quickly trample the rights of the citizens it exists to serve.

This is why the brilliant men who set up our national government in 1787 created a constitution that held that government tightly in check.  The founders laid out a specific set of powers and areas of authority for the federal government in Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.  Those few enumerated powers were, in the words of the “Father of the Constitution” James Madison “few and defined” and were “to be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce.” The list of those areas of authority found in Article 1 Section 8 makes it very clear that Madison’s description was very accurate.

To further clarify that the federal government’s powers were few and limited, the Tenth Amendment (part of the original Bill of Rights) said

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.

It could not possibly be clearer, could it, that the federal government’s power is very limited and defined?  Well, this clear truth somehow becomes muddy for some…for those who are determined to find a way around the Constitution while still claiming to respect it.

That kind of “imaginative” (dare I say, dishonest and corrupt) approach to the Constitution is what brought about the beginnings of instituting socialism in the American government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Roosevelt was way ahead of Rahm Emanuel in accepting the axiom to “never let a serious crisis go to waste,” and he intended to use the Great Depression as the perfect snowstorm in which to hid his trampling of the Constitution to push socialism and an unconstitutionally-expanded federal government on the American people.  However, even in the midst of this crisis, the U.S. Supreme Court stood in his way during the early years of his presidency and thwarted his legislative schemes.  Therefore, Roosevelt looked to change the rules of the game with his “court packing” scheme in which he hoped to expand the number of justices on the court so that he could appoint socialists like himself who would allow his unconstitutional agenda to become law.

This scheme ultimately failed…but FDR still managed to get his way. The confrontation with the judicial branch over the court packing scheme cowed the justices, afraid they might lose even the illusion of their independence against the overweening executive and legislative branches, and they began to acquiesce to the socialist agenda.  FDR was also in office for so long (elected to four terms), he ended up packing the court with socialists and got most of his un-American agenda passed anyway.

One of the greatest socialist edifices of the FDR years was Social Security, a government-run (and unconstitutional) retirement and welfare system that was allowed to stand as law, and which quickly bred dependence among the American people.

President Lyndon Johnson continued this new court-aided tradition of socialism in America with the Medicare and Medicaid government health care systems. These were every bit as unconstitutional as their Social Security parent, but with liberalism firmly entrenched in American government and the American people addicted to the opiate of government largess, they passed with barely a whimper.

Since then, we have seen these programs teeter on the edge of bankruptcy for years, requiring greater and greater infusions of taxpayer dollars to keep them afloat.  Even with these increased thefts of private funds, even some liberals are beginning to admit they are unsustainable programs.

Any reasonable person could have pointed out years ago (and some have) that these are nothing but unsustainable ponzi schemes, relying on the investments of subsequent participants to pay dividends to the earlier investors.  All ponzi schemes require an ever-increasing number of investors to remain afloat, but ultimately run out of investors and collapse.  We are seeing this end on the horizon for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, though there are still plenty of Koolaid-drinking socialists who continue to insist that the emperor’s new clothes are really quite pretty.

While many of our leaders are in complete denial, the American people are waking up in record numbers to realize realize that (a) socialism and big government are contrary to the U.S. Constitution and the American way, (b) such methods and programs are unsustainable and very damaging to the health of our country and to the character of the American people, (c) something must be done immediately if our republic is to survive much longer.

Nowhere was this made more clear than in the American people’s adamant, vocal and solid rejection of the current socialized health care proposal.  The recent victory for Republican Scott Brown in longtime-liberal Massachusetts was also won largely on his stance against socialized health care.

On the wave of this national realization of the (figurative and literal) bankruptcy of socialism come real ideas and initiatives to phase out these ponzi schemes and return America to her limited-government and constitutional roots.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has been taking (the usual) heat from Leftists for admitting the truth about these programs.

“What you have to do, is keep faith with the people that are already in the system, that don’t have any other options, we have to keep faith with them. But basically what we have to do is wean everybody else off. And wean everybody off because we have to take those unfunded net liabilities off our bank sheet.”

We can’t just shut these programs down overnight. All Americans have been paying into them their entire working lives, and many are completely dependent on them. It will have to be a gradual thing that takes place over several years, with those who have few working years left remaining on the existing system the rest of their lives.

Nevertheless, Bachmann isn’t afraid to state the unavoidable truth:

“What we know right now (is) that going forward, Social Security and Medicare will be bankrupt and they will be broke. … We have to take up the issue and we need to address it. There are a number of proposals on the table. One, my colleague from Wisconsin Paul Ryan has a proposal. I have taken a look at that. I am open to a number of different ideas. The one thing we do know, the current system isn’t sustainable. The system is going to be dead broke by 2017.”

Rep. Ryan has what actually looks like a good move in the right direction. Ryan’s plan is called the Roadmap for America’s Future.  The Congressional Budget Office has analyzed the plan and states it will help immensely in avoiding the coming train-wreck of the existing system.  Ryan has predictably been savaged by those invested in maintaining the socialist system in place in our government, but Ryan has shown more real leadership on this issue than the entire remainder of the executive and legislative branches combined.

Note: Reader comments are reviewed before publishing, and only salient comments that add to the topic will be published. Profanity is absolutely not allowed and will be summarily deleted. Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will also be deleted.

Page 1 Page 2

Pages: 1 2