I see where S.160, the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009 has been passed in the Senate and will soon be before the House of Representatives.
First Congress spends years grousing about how President Bush ignores the Constitution. Then the Senate proceeds to ignore a perfectly Constitutional solution with legal precedent dating all the way back to 1846 and instead passes a bill that is Constitutionally problematic and expands the size of Congress in the midst of an economic recession/depression. I gather that politics is now more important than both fiscal responsibility and that “scrap of paper” called the Constitution.
I find that I am in total agreement with Senator Lamar Alexander's recent statement, “The bill passed by the Senate is unconstitutional because the District of Columbia is not a state. Our nation was formed by states, and the District is a unique city – not a state. The Constitution itself makes that distinction. The most logical alternative for giving D.C. residents full representation in Congress would be to give the District back to Maryland. The District was created from land ceded by Virginia and Maryland. Just as Arlington and part of Alexandria went back to Virginia in 1846, most of the District could again become part of Maryland, leaving only a small area around key federal buildings and monuments. I voted for an amendment that would have given DC residents full voting rights under this approach. Another option would be to keep the District as a separate entity, but allow DC residents to vote in Maryland. Congress should have passed one of these alternatives instead of passing an unconstitutional bill.” (emphasis mine)
Insofar as (1) the technological shrinking of our planet has lessened the clout associated with living in the seat of national power, and (2) the vast majority of the residents of the District of Columbia are not among the movers and shakers of our nation, I have no problem with the residents of the District receiving a voice in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives by returning the private property within the District to the Sovereign State of Maryland. On the other hand, I have real problems with Congress' current fixation on extra-Constitutional ”solutions!“
2009/03/01
2009/02/25
Open Letter to Wyoming Governor
Dear Governor Freudenthal,
Sometimes incrementally and other times in fits and starts, the United States has crept away from its original mandate as a federal republic exercising limited powers over a voluntary union of sovereign States and toward a nation-wide unitary government. During the previous presidential administration, this erosion extended to the Constitution of our Federal Republic reputedly being called a “scrap of paper.”
The “scrap of paper” line may or may not be an apocryphal tale, but it does underline an undeniable imperial pattern in our federal government that has raised its ugly head from time to time in the course of the Republic but which has become very much of a constant and growing theme since the Hoover administration. Unfortunately, the States have largely forgotten that they are the single most important counterbalance to the federal juggernaut and instead have been very much complicit in this erosion of the Constitution as they greedily fight for slops from the federal money trough which has grown remarkably since the institution of the income tax.
Consequently, I have been pleased to learn in conversations with Representative Del McOmie that Representative Pat Childers has crafted a letter to the President and Congress that restates the roll of the State of Wyoming in particular, and of the States in general, as sovereign partners in a contract creating a Federal Republic designed to minimize the seductive but mortal dangers associated with any unbalanced concentration of political power while providing for the general welfare of the People and States authorizing that contract.
I encourage you to add your signature to this letter and to encourage all members of your administration and the Wyoming Legislature to do the same.
This is the text of the letter that Del provided to me:
*********************Start of Letter Text****************
President Barack Obama
Members of the United States Senate
Members of the United State House of Representatives
Mr. President, Senators and Representatives,
The Constitution of the State of Wyoming declares that all power is inherent in the people and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness, for the advance of these ends they have at all time an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper. We proclaim that the right to self government right may never be expressly delegated to the United States Congress. The Constitution of the State of Wyoming declares that absolute, arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of free men exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority. The people of the State of Wyoming agree that all powers not expressly delegated to the federal government in the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights must be reserved and exercised by individual states.
When Wyoming entered into statehood in 1890, that entrance was accomplished by a contract between Wyoming and the several states, with Congress and the President concurring and acting as the agent for the several states, a contract known as the "Act of Admission". A contract, compact, or treaty must be implemented consistent with the terms and understandings in place at the time it is entered into. The protection of these states' rights is enumerated in amendments to the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, which state that "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".
Now, we the undersigned declare the following:
(1) That the several states of the United States are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to general government, but by ratifying the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, they constituted a general government for special purposes and delegated to that government certain definite powers, while reserving all other rights.
(2) That when the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are void and of no force.
(3) That the government created by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights was not granted the right to determine the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, the measure of its powers.
(4) That the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting of the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, felonies committed on the high seas, offenses against the law of nations, slavery, and no other crimes.
(5) That all acts of Congress that assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those enumerated in the federal constitution and Bill of Rights, are void and of no force.
(6) That the power to create, define, and punish other crimes is reserved by the states.
(7) That power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press remains and is reserved by the states or the people, allowing states the right to judge how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom and how far those abuses, which cannot be separated from their use, should be tolerated, rather than allowing the use to be destroyed.
(8) That states are guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the freedom of religious opinions and exercises and retain the right of protecting the same.
(9) That all acts of Congress that abridge freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press are not law and are void.
(10) That power over the freedom of the right to keep and bear arms was reserved to the states and to the people, allowing states the right to judge how far infringements on the right to bear arms should be tolerated, rather than allowing that exercise to be defined by Congress.
(11) That states and the people are guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the right to keep and bear arms and retain the right of protecting that right.
(12) That all acts of Congress that abridge the right to bear arms are not law and are void.
(13) That Congress's interpretation of those parts of the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights that delegate to Congress a power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States" 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" has attempted to destroy the limits of its power.
(14) That those parts of the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, detailed in subsection (13), must not be construed to give unlimited powers to the federal government, and that Congress's inappropriate interpretation must be revised and corrected.
(15) That if Wyoming accepts these inappropriate interpretations and continues to allow Congress to exercise unbridled authority, it would be surrendering its own form of government.
(16) That the people of this state will not submit to undelegated and consequently unlimited powers.
(17) That every state has a right to nullify all assumptions of power by others within their limits, and that without this right, states would be under the dominion and power of anyone who might try to exercise that power.
(18) That it would be a dangerous delusion to silence people's fears for the safety of their rights.
(19) That this state calls on its costates for an expression of their sentiments on acts not authorized by the United States Constitution.
(20) That the rights and liberties of Wyoming and its costates must be protected from any dangers by declaring that Congress is limited by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights.
(21) That any act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States, or Judicial Order of the United States that assumes a power not delegated by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights diminishing the liberty of this state or its citizens constitutes a nullification of the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights by the government of the United States. Acts that would cause a nullification and a breach include but are not limited to:
(a) Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within a state without the consent of the legislature of that state;
(b) Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war or pursuant to or as an alternative to incarceration after due process of law;
(c) Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to or as an alternative to incarceration after due process of law;
(d) Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government;
(e) Any act regarding religion, further limitations on freedom of political speech, or further limitations on freedom of the press; or
(f) Any act regarding the right to keep and bear arms or further limitations on the right to bear arms, including any restrictions on the type or number of firearms or the amount or type of ammunition any law-abiding citizen may purchase, own, or possess.
(22) That if any act of Congress becomes law or if an Executive Order or Judicial Order is put into force related to the reservations expressed in this resolution, Wyoming's "Act of Admission" is breached and all powers previously delegated to the United States by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights revert to the states individually.
(23) That any future government of the United States shall require ratification of three-fourths of the states seeking to form a government and shall not be binding upon any state not seeking to form a government.
Sincerely,
*****************End of Letter Text*****************
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”
Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler (unverified)
Sometimes incrementally and other times in fits and starts, the United States has crept away from its original mandate as a federal republic exercising limited powers over a voluntary union of sovereign States and toward a nation-wide unitary government. During the previous presidential administration, this erosion extended to the Constitution of our Federal Republic reputedly being called a “scrap of paper.”
The “scrap of paper” line may or may not be an apocryphal tale, but it does underline an undeniable imperial pattern in our federal government that has raised its ugly head from time to time in the course of the Republic but which has become very much of a constant and growing theme since the Hoover administration. Unfortunately, the States have largely forgotten that they are the single most important counterbalance to the federal juggernaut and instead have been very much complicit in this erosion of the Constitution as they greedily fight for slops from the federal money trough which has grown remarkably since the institution of the income tax.
Consequently, I have been pleased to learn in conversations with Representative Del McOmie that Representative Pat Childers has crafted a letter to the President and Congress that restates the roll of the State of Wyoming in particular, and of the States in general, as sovereign partners in a contract creating a Federal Republic designed to minimize the seductive but mortal dangers associated with any unbalanced concentration of political power while providing for the general welfare of the People and States authorizing that contract.
I encourage you to add your signature to this letter and to encourage all members of your administration and the Wyoming Legislature to do the same.
This is the text of the letter that Del provided to me:
*********************Start of Letter Text****************
President Barack Obama
Members of the United States Senate
Members of the United State House of Representatives
Mr. President, Senators and Representatives,
The Constitution of the State of Wyoming declares that all power is inherent in the people and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness, for the advance of these ends they have at all time an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper. We proclaim that the right to self government right may never be expressly delegated to the United States Congress. The Constitution of the State of Wyoming declares that absolute, arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of free men exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority. The people of the State of Wyoming agree that all powers not expressly delegated to the federal government in the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights must be reserved and exercised by individual states.
When Wyoming entered into statehood in 1890, that entrance was accomplished by a contract between Wyoming and the several states, with Congress and the President concurring and acting as the agent for the several states, a contract known as the "Act of Admission". A contract, compact, or treaty must be implemented consistent with the terms and understandings in place at the time it is entered into. The protection of these states' rights is enumerated in amendments to the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, which state that "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".
Now, we the undersigned declare the following:
(1) That the several states of the United States are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to general government, but by ratifying the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, they constituted a general government for special purposes and delegated to that government certain definite powers, while reserving all other rights.
(2) That when the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are void and of no force.
(3) That the government created by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights was not granted the right to determine the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, the measure of its powers.
(4) That the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting of the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, felonies committed on the high seas, offenses against the law of nations, slavery, and no other crimes.
(5) That all acts of Congress that assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those enumerated in the federal constitution and Bill of Rights, are void and of no force.
(6) That the power to create, define, and punish other crimes is reserved by the states.
(7) That power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press remains and is reserved by the states or the people, allowing states the right to judge how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom and how far those abuses, which cannot be separated from their use, should be tolerated, rather than allowing the use to be destroyed.
(8) That states are guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the freedom of religious opinions and exercises and retain the right of protecting the same.
(9) That all acts of Congress that abridge freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press are not law and are void.
(10) That power over the freedom of the right to keep and bear arms was reserved to the states and to the people, allowing states the right to judge how far infringements on the right to bear arms should be tolerated, rather than allowing that exercise to be defined by Congress.
(11) That states and the people are guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the right to keep and bear arms and retain the right of protecting that right.
(12) That all acts of Congress that abridge the right to bear arms are not law and are void.
(13) That Congress's interpretation of those parts of the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights that delegate to Congress a power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States" 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" has attempted to destroy the limits of its power.
(14) That those parts of the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, detailed in subsection (13), must not be construed to give unlimited powers to the federal government, and that Congress's inappropriate interpretation must be revised and corrected.
(15) That if Wyoming accepts these inappropriate interpretations and continues to allow Congress to exercise unbridled authority, it would be surrendering its own form of government.
(16) That the people of this state will not submit to undelegated and consequently unlimited powers.
(17) That every state has a right to nullify all assumptions of power by others within their limits, and that without this right, states would be under the dominion and power of anyone who might try to exercise that power.
(18) That it would be a dangerous delusion to silence people's fears for the safety of their rights.
(19) That this state calls on its costates for an expression of their sentiments on acts not authorized by the United States Constitution.
(20) That the rights and liberties of Wyoming and its costates must be protected from any dangers by declaring that Congress is limited by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights.
(21) That any act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States, or Judicial Order of the United States that assumes a power not delegated by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights diminishing the liberty of this state or its citizens constitutes a nullification of the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights by the government of the United States. Acts that would cause a nullification and a breach include but are not limited to:
(a) Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within a state without the consent of the legislature of that state;
(b) Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war or pursuant to or as an alternative to incarceration after due process of law;
(c) Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to or as an alternative to incarceration after due process of law;
(d) Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government;
(e) Any act regarding religion, further limitations on freedom of political speech, or further limitations on freedom of the press; or
(f) Any act regarding the right to keep and bear arms or further limitations on the right to bear arms, including any restrictions on the type or number of firearms or the amount or type of ammunition any law-abiding citizen may purchase, own, or possess.
(22) That if any act of Congress becomes law or if an Executive Order or Judicial Order is put into force related to the reservations expressed in this resolution, Wyoming's "Act of Admission" is breached and all powers previously delegated to the United States by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights revert to the states individually.
(23) That any future government of the United States shall require ratification of three-fourths of the states seeking to form a government and shall not be binding upon any state not seeking to form a government.
Sincerely,
*****************End of Letter Text*****************
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”
Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler (unverified)
2009/02/04
Open Letter to the President
I see that our Internet savvy President only accepts missives of 500 characters or less. My current thoughts won't fit inside 500 words, let alone 500 characters. However, my need to scratch this itch is strong enough that I will make an open letter to the President the initial post on a brand new blog.
I realize that what I’m doing is tantamount to throwing a drop of water into the ocean. The probability that you will actually see this, or even hear some of these ideas, is vanishingly small. However, as a citizen of the Republic, I feel and will heed the need to try.
I've been looking at some of the numbers associated with the so-called American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. I see where the House Committee on Appropriations summary on the bill exclaims breathlessly that, “The economy is in a crisis not seen since the Great Depression. Credit is frozen, consumer purchasing power is in decline, in the last four months the country has lost 2 million jobs and we are expected to lose another 3 to 5 million in the next year.” This makes it sound pretty serious and one would expect that the bill would be very carefully targeted to get money into the economy as quickly as possible. Instead as I look over the line items I am struck by the inability of Congress to distinguish between lard and coffee—and a lot of the “coffee” looks like it will take a fair number of years to brew!
Are you and the Congress about to make the same mistakes that Hoover and FDR made? The history I learned in school taught me that big government and its associated big spending successfully brought us out of the Great Depression. Of late I hear more nuanced notes and even opposing themes, e.g. government meddling by both the Hoover and the Roosevelt administrations actually deepened and lengthened the Depression, and the Keynesian spending that both administrations attempted was too little, too late even though it could have worked.
Its not often that both FDR and Hoover are criticized in the same breath, so let me add a historical note at this point. FDR campaigned against Hoover's big government and once in office proceeded to run with it—as Rexford Guy Tugwell, an advisor to FDR and later as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture under FDR, said, “When it was all over, I once made a list of New Deal ventures begun during Hoover's years as secretary of commerce and then as president… The New Deal owed much to what he had begun.”
Unfortunately for us today, generally speaking, economists are mistakenly regarded as scientific brahmins of the first order rather than as the blind men feeling up the economic elephant that they actually are. As a result, there are credible arguments on all sides of just about any substantive economic issue. Keynesianism appears to be the touchstone on which the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 is written which implies that the effective money supply has essentially collapsed, in this case most likely due to a risk and fear induced decline in the velocity of money. Only history will tell us for sure, but assuming that this is the correct course on which to set our helm, it is pretty obvious that we are set to make at least one of the mistakes that Hoover and FDR made, i.e. the money will come too late.
If the idea really is to get money into the economy as fast as possible, I think that Congress should get a failing grade! A recent Congressional Budget Office study that found that LESS THAN HALF of the money that will actually generate jobs (for roads, school construction, and other infrastructure projects) is likely to be spent within the next TWO years! In fact, across the entire bill, they estimate that the last $63 billion wouldn't be spent until sometime between 2013 and 2019!
Last time around we bailed out the banks so that they could give their employees bonuses—for participating in failure! And what was left over after the bonuses, the banks decided to sit on rather than get it into the economy! Just what we needed, welfare for poor, impoverished bankers!
According to the Christian Science Monitor about one-quarter of this new $800 billion plus recovery package would be devoted to activities crucial to governors, mayors, and local school boards—making them among the plan’s biggest beneficiaries. This time we're going to try bailing out mayors and governors. And just what makes us think that they can do any better than our illustrious bankers at getting money moving through the economy quickly—the tooth fairy? Is this change—bailing out more fat cats—even if they are political fat cats? How is this not following in the footsteps of the Bush administration?
If we are going to leap into deficit spending like there is no tomorrow, we might as well do it in such a manner that it will make a difference. Give the money to the people, not in a single lump that will encourage hoarding or foolish splurging, but in a monthly flow that will last for a predictable period of time. Predictability is important to markets. Without it, evaluating risk becomes a roll of the dice which tends to freeze markets up. With a reasonable degree of predictability market decisions become calculated risks which markets can thrive on.
There are about 140 million taxpayers in the United States. That means that the economic engine of the United States has 140 million cylinders; better that we dump fuel (read money) directly into the cylinders rather than doing the economic equivalent of giving the fuel to selected oil companies (read banks, governments and big businesses) so that they can take their cut before it gets thru the distribution system and finally to the cylinders where it will be burned (spent)—in some cases 10 years later—and 99% of the time with far less effect.
Bankers do not create wealth; they manage it and attempt to manipulate it, but they are not credible creators of it. Government does not create wealth; it takes it from one group and gives it to another—sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for bad reasons—but it does not create wealth. Business is often said to be a creator of wealth, but it is not; it is only a manager and a director of the efficient creation of wealth. Only individuals who work (usually for businesses) create wealth. If you want the wealth that individuals create to move among those individuals and create a viable economy, they need money to lubricate the efficient flow of goods and services from creators to consumers. The quickest way to get that money into an economy is to put it directly into the hands of those who both create and consume wealth—the taxpayers. An economy can, and has, run without bankers, bureaucrats and businessmen, but an economy has never run without producers and consumers. Who better to give money to than to those who are indispensable to the very existence of an economy? Not only is it efficient, it is fair!
Let us not repeat history! Let us do something truly new for a change! If you divide $800 billion by 140 million, you get a little less than $6,000. That means that every taxpayer filing jointly could get $500 per month for a year and every taxpayer filing singly could get $250 per month for that year. Since about 28% of all households make $25,000 per year and average two persons per household, it is reasonable to assume that virtually all of that stimulus (about $225 billion) will be spent into the economy almost immediately. That's already better than the current package of lard is expected to do! Another 27% of households make up to $50,000 per year and average 2.5 persons per household, it is reasonable to assume that half of their stimulus package (about $108 billion)will be spent into the economy immediately and the other half will be saved for a rainy day. Of the 45% of households making more than $50,000, let us be pessimistic and assume that the entire $360 billion remaining will be invested in banks, bonds and stocks where it will support capital investment in business and strengthen the economy.
Using this approach, in one year's time we have injected $333 billion dollars directly into the retail economy and another $467 billion into the capital markets without bailing out “starving” bankers and corporate CEOs.
Five hundred dollars a month is not a large sum, but for low income families or for economically naive families the abrupt termination of this kind of a monthly stipend could generate something of a “cold turkey” shock to some of them. An even better approach would be to provide these full monthly stipends for only six months and then taper the sum received to zero over the following twelve months. That maximizes predictability for both taxpayers and the markets which is exactly one type of tranquilizer that skittish markets need in order to maintain their health.
As it stands, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 is about as effective as trying to rehydrate an unconscious man dying of thirst in a blazing desert by dumping him into a pool of water so he can soak up the water he needs through his skin. In contrast, giving that money directly to taxpayers is equivalent to giving an IV to rehydrate our dying desert traveler. If we are going to go $800 billion further into hock, let's use it in a manner that will make a real difference instead of marching down the same old well trodden path to failure! People are far less patient today than they were in the thirties. All the pork in the world may not keep the Democrats in power in 2010 IF the Keynesian prescription is correct BUT the medicine arrives too late.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)