Bryan Fischer
April 10, 2008
Federal spending and the Constitution
By Bryan Fischer

The Constitution restricts the taxing power of the central government, in Article I, Section 8, to a select list of activities: coining money, establishing Post Offices, providing "for the common Defence" by funding the military, maintaining the federal court system, and a few others.

As economist Walter Williams points out, there is absolutely no constitutional authority for two-thirds of the $3 trillion federal budget, the parts that deal with Social Security, Medicare, farm and business subsidies, education, prescription drugs, etc.

His observations are timely, as news has surfaced this week that more than 300 "urban farmers" in Manhattan — yes, Manhattan — are getting agricultural subsidies. Your tax dollars are being sucked out of your wallet and sent to at least two billionaires, a former CEO of Seagram's, and Wall Street power brokers. A member of the Rockefeller family pocketed $228,000 in subsidies over the last five years.

Worse, a study released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office indicates that federal employees used taxpayer-funded credit cards to pay for lingerie ("for use during jungle training"), iPods, Internet dating services and a $13,000 steak-and-booze dinner.

Nearly half of the "purchase card" transactions examined by the GAO were improper, and the various government agencies could not account for $2 million worth of items such as laptop computers, digital cameras, and computer servers.

Further, the presence of 37 million immigrants in the U.S., legal and illegal, cost American taxpayers more than $346 billion last year, more than twice the national debt. Ordinary Americans cough up about $9,000 a year for each immigrant in the country, about a third of whom are in the U.S. illegally.

One study estimates that each illegal costs American taxpayers at all levels about $22,000 per year in education, health care and law enforcement costs, and the Bureau of Land Management spends millions of dollars a year to clean up the trash left behind by illegal aliens along our southern border.

The "general welfare" clause in the Constitution was not intended by the Founders to grant unlimited taxing and spending authority to the federal government, despite the claims of big government advocates to the contrary.

As Thomas Jefferson said, "Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated."

President Grover Cleveland vetoed hundreds of spending measures during his two terms, saying, "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution."

So Franklin Pierce, who said, after vetoing a well-meaning appropriation for the mentally ill, "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity." He added, "To approve such spending would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of the States is founded."

A bill called the Enumerated Powers Act would restrict Congress to spending only what the Constitution authorizes it to, but has never had a single Senate co-sponsor, including the three candidates for president.

Only Sen. McCain, of the three presidential candidates left standing, is against repealing the Bush tax cuts. If these cuts are allowed to expire, as scheduled in 2010, the personal income tax burden on Americans will jump by an alarming 25%, driving it to historic highs as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product.

Lower-income households will face a staggering 50% increase in their tax rates, which makes it hard for the Democratic presidential candidates to present themselves as champions of the little guy.

The marriage penalty, which perversely punishes married couples, will return, and the child credit will be slashed by $500 per child. The Alternative Minimum Tax will ensnare an additional 25 million tax filers in its tentacles.

According to Rep. Bill Sali's office, "Tax Freedom Day" for the average American will not come until April 23 this year, meaning that you have been working all year not for you and your family but for your local, state, and federal government. This doesn't account for additional costs imposed on American citizens by burdensome regulations. In 1900, by contrast, "Tax Freedom Day" landed on January 22.

Anybody for a return to the Constitution?

© Bryan Fischer

 

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