The Eighteen Powers

When you read the Constitution, read the Ninth and Tenth Amendments first. The reason to start there is to understand the entire point of the Constitution: that the Federal Government’s power is strictly limited, and all other power is reserved to the States and the people. The Federalist Papers were a collection of essays published in the newspaper to explain the new ideas of the Constitution and to defend it. From Federalist Paper number 45:

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security. As the former periods will probably bear a small proportion to the latter, the State governments will here enjoy another advantage over the federal government. The more adequate, indeed, the federal powers may be rendered to the national defense, the less frequent will be those scenes of danger which might favor their ascendancy over the governments of the particular States.

That pretty much sums it up in the Founders’ actual words. You don’t have to guess their intent or try to somehow read their minds from 220 years away. They outlined their reasoning at length in the Federalist Papers.

The boundaries of the Federal Power lies in the Tenth Amendment:

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.

The unbounded nature of the residual rights belongs to the States and the people, which is specified by the Ninth Amendment:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the People.

Take a few minutes to process this. Pay attention to the true meaning of this relative to our current situation. The Federal Government is Constitutionally required to operate within a very narrow power base, enforced by the Tenth Amendment. That power base is set for Congress in Article I, Section 8, which outlines only eighteen powers allotted to them. Eighteen powers and nothing more. Say it again…

I have included the entire list of eighteen powers below for you to read. This should be the starting point to the Constitution and the ending point. Read those eighteen powers and see if you can find any specific authorization for Congress to buy General Motors, to buy AIG, to bailout Citibank, to buy mortgages, to underwrite mortgages (and pay for failure), to set executive pay in any company for any reason, to have a National Health Care Program, to have a Federal Department of Education, to have a Federal Department of Homeland Security, to spy on American citizens in the name of defense, etc., etc., etc.

I find no authorization for these actions, and with the Tenth Amendment in place, they cannot be allowed to do these things.

So, the trillion dollar question is (and always will be), what’s stopping them?

The correct answer is: We the People.

Reform must involve restating the eighteen powers that binds the Federal Government. For the true Constitutional scholars out there: restate the Commerce clause to forbid Congress passing any law that limits interstate commerce, restate the Sixteenth Amendment in income tax to a flat tax that is uniform and understandable, restate the General Welfare clause to state that it grants no additional power to the others granted in Article I, Section 8 already, and restate the Necessary and Proper clause in the same way–that it authorizes no additional power.

Failure to act, and soon, will mean that our great nation will go down in history as the next empire to fall.

I will keep working…will you?????

EIGHTEEN POWERS OF ARTICLE I, SECTION 8:

1.    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;
2.    To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
3.    To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
4.    To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
5.    To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
6.    To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
7.    To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
8.    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;
9.    To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
10.    To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
11.    To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
12.    To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
13.    To provide and maintain a Navy;
14.    To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
15.    To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
16.    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;
17.    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
18.    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.