The Constitution Forbids It…

The Constitution is clear where legislation must be proposed; the House of congress. Article I section VII and VIII make clear that the responsibility for legislation at the federal level is the responsibility of the House. The idea that federal bureaucracies can make “rules” that become laws that include punishment for breaking such laws, is unconstitutional. The EPA, FCC, FAA, and every one of the other thousand agencies have no authority to set laws for the states.


Let’s take for instance the EPA that has bankrupted farmers in California to “save” a small fish that finds its way into the irrigation system or the recent FCC ruling to start regulating the internet. Federal agencies have taken the legitimate role of oversight to the unconstitutional role of creating rules and laws that have squashed businesses creativity and ability to expand operations.

Some may argue that the congress has already legislated the rules and the bureaucracies are just enforcing the laws they have created but this is simply not true. The federal bureaucracies have been expanding their roles and creating what is ultimately legislation by implementing processes that end run the congress and the legitimate creation of law...

Through intimidation, increasing barriers to entry into an industry, by using faulty science, regulatory bodies have become de facto legislators. These bureaucracies are unaccountable to the people and are a great excuse for legislators that agree with their leftist agenda to hide behind for political cover. It is rule by tyranny. They set the rules and we have to abide by them. But where is their authority coming from?

There are many levels to pick this apart but the first level is the constitutionality of any of these bureaucracies. Where in the constitution is the authority to meddle in the internal states affairs regarding the work rules (OSHA), irrigation and water to farm (EPA), and the free and open market on the internet (FCC). The commerce clause is the left’s answer but the abuse of the commerce clause must come to an end. Precedence be damned. We must take every case individually and apply it to the original intent of the constitution.

The commerce clause was created to make commerce regular among the states. When goods were traded and transported between and through states, it was determined by our founders that the confidence and stability of clear standards of conduct was beneficial to the economy of the United States. Making the rules regular would encourage commerce and break down trade barriers among the states and the countries the United States traded with. It was not intended to determine the hours of labor a man worked in a factory or on a farm in any particular state. Our founders understood the power that a strong and vibrant private sector was for the strength of our country. They were the biggest promoters of private business and trade. It seems our representatives are the biggest roadblock to private enterprise and free trade. How times have changed.

Even if you could make a constitutional argument that any of these regulatory bodies have a role in one of the federally enumerated powers, it is still unconstitutional for congressional representatives to pass on responsibility of creating rules that are truly laws to any other government body. If we follow this logic we would have no constitutional republic. For example, Congress could simply pass a law that said all legislative powers are herby handed over to the Department of Energy for the good of the country when the matter is energy policy. Would this be allowed if this was stated outright? There would be outrage, I would think. The people would no longer be in control of their government, bureaucrats would be in control.

We have too many federal bureaucrats with too much control of our lives at the federal level. We have failed to defend the constitution, and in particular the Tenth Amendment. We have for too long accepted the trampling of our rights by overzealous central planners who were the intended target of our founders in the Constitution. It is not surprising that the same people that defend central planning believe the Constitution is a “living” document that must be open to interpretation of the most current circumstances of the people. It is not surprising that these central planners would like nothing more than to continue to ignore the intentions of our founders and the new Tea Party movement.

The Tea Party is made up of people that believe that words mean things and our Constitution is our guiding law that was intended to keep control with the people and the states. The Tea Party is a movement to educate and protect the founding principles that encourage private business and limit government interference. The fact that we have allowed the Constitution to be ignored and federal bureaucracies to expand is not an excuse to throw constitutional government away.

The Constitution is there to be defended and used to bring this country back to the miracle it once was. It is not too late to defend it or enforce it. But we must understand it. Presidents have used uncertainty and hard times as an excuse to ignore the Constitution. We must use uncertainty and hard times to re-establish the foundational principles to return to greatness…

Live or Let Die?

Deciding what to do at the end of one’s life is not the decision of any government bureaucracy. It is an individual choice that is a painful and difficult decision for both the individual facing that decision and the family members of that individual that must live with the loss.

The fact is we are all going to die. Some of us will die unexpectedly, others will die naturally, and for some the end of life becomes so painful and agonizing decisions on how much longer they will live can be the catalyst for ethical and moral clashes. Some people that have been fighting cancer or other debilitating diseases are often in circumstances that become unbearable for that individual. Quietly they choose to move on to the next life and concede the battle. It is generally a peaceful process that is comforted with some of the wonderful drugs that have enabled us to ease the pain of our loved ones.

In some cases family members struggle to accept the inevitable process of dying and interject their own desire and selfishness to keep their loved one around through extra ordinary measures. Even when individual patients have DNR orders (Do Not Resuscitate) it is not unusual for family members to intercede and frantically request their love one be “saved”. This is not for the benefit of the patient but rather a guilt or unresolved issue with the family member. It is a very personal experience and every family works it out every day across this country. Rarely is the decision made based on money, it is usually the reality that the family member has made their peace with the world.

Healthcare and dying are personal. The dignity of patients and their families is paramount. There is no place in this decision for a federal government bureaucrat. But that is what is happening. Through the use of “incentives” for doctors to either be financially efficient or utilize specific programs that reduce the cost of maintaining the elderly, the federal government has worked their way into that very personal relationship between a patient, doctor, and family. The efforts of the federal government to influence a doctor’s decision on care, especially end of life care is not only unconstitutional it is morally appalling.

Healthcare has been hijacked by the government and insurance companies by creating a false marketplace that has no built in mechanisms to control itself. Just as it is a personal decision as to whether or not I purchase health insurance, it is a personal choice, and my individual right to liberty how I decide to manage the end of my life. I am not talking about promoting assisted suicide; I am promoting individual freedom and liberty. I don’t need the morality police or the federal bureaucrat deciding any aspect of my private care. I can choose to fight cancer with all of my power and resources or I can choose to save my resources and allow the natural outcome of my decision. Every individual should have that right. It may be uncomfortable for some but freedom is a very uncomfortable but undeniable right.

That is why I am vehemently against government in the healthcare industry. We need more private market incentives in the basics of healthcare allowing for a better market to develop for end of life care. We are all going to die whether we want to face it or not. But the federal government should not be impacting that aspect of our lives in any way. It is not only unconstitutional - it will end up being a criminal enterprise if allowed to continue. You mark my words…

A Simple Man…

I consider myself a simple man that sees the world from a very practical perspective. I don’t believe things ever have to be as hard as they seem. It is probably why I am a conservative that leans libertarian. It makes simple sense to me that when we respect the individual’s right to be free, everything else makes total sense.

I think the founders were simple men. They were simple which is what made them brilliant. By looking at the world through the eyes of the individual they were able to see the future clearly. They also had a profound interest and curiosity for history and invention. They spent much of their time creating things to advance the industry of the day. Whether it was a better way to run the farm or creating the first tool to copy written documents, the polygraph, it was their passion as individuals to help other individuals improve their lives. They had little interest in running the lives of others. They had been there done that and decided there was a better way.

As we look at the state of our country today it is clear we have lost the simple notion that we are better off when we allow each individual to learn how to fish rather than feed them the same. The evidence is clear and simple to understand. As we have gravitated away from protecting the individual liberty of our citizens and replaced it with a collective wisdom that we know what is best for others, we see the destruction that is left in the path of collectivism.

The Black community has been devastated by the collective notion that these individuals are incapable of helping themselves. It is simply discrimination in another form. We are robbing this community of their ability to find their own happiness and success in life. For the past 50 years we have been told that we are not doing enough for this community but the simple fact is we are doing too much. By undermining the individual spirit our founders treasured, we have begun a transformation back to a time where Kings and royalty decided what was best for the kingdom. We are headed back to the future to steal a popular movie series title.

The current efforts to regulate what our kids eat, who gets access to the internet, stealing the wealth of hard working individuals and giving it to others under the guise of fairness, we continue to destroy our foundational principle. It is not cold hearted to want people to succeed on their own; it is compassionate to do so. It is not selfish to want to keep what we earn for ourselves or future generations of our family; it is the source of compassion. When individuals are able to create excess wealth they tend to share that wealth with others that are less fortunate. Not through force but out of a compassionate heart for their neighbor. Taking by force through taxation causes resentment and the result is less compassion and giving. It is a simple truth if you just take a moment to think about it.

The end of what is happening in our country is simple to see if we just follow through to the logical conclusion. We have seen it before in our own history. Oppressive taxation and regulation, meddling in individuals private affairs, and ignoring the will of the people were the impetus to our first revolution. It is not a threat but simply a fact. At some point individuals will take back their rights as individuals to keep their wealth, freedom, and happiness from an over reaching government bureaucracy. We as Americans live by a simple creed which is live free or die. It is actually the state motto of New Hampshire but it resides in every American heart. From our military to our kitchen tables we will not allow the government to determine our fate without a fight.

The Tea Party of today has been awakened by the same emotions that were stirred in 1773. History is repeating itself right before our eyes if we simply think about the circumstances of today and at our founding. The pundits and media can’t see it because they are part of the collective wisdom that they know better than us what’s good for our country. They shutter at the word revolution but for individuals that care about our constitution and country the word gives them hope for a better future. It is not about violence. It is about a simple principle, we as Americans will never concede our right to be free to pursue happiness. It may be offensive to some that we wish for a simpler form of federal government but we don’t care about offending the elite. We relish in it.

The American Revolution was simple in concept. “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…” Our Declaration of Independence that embodied our spirit as individuals and a nation is as relevant today as it was in 1776.

It seems simple to me that we are at a point in our history where the Tea Party will spark another revolution that will again revive the spirit our founders so engrained through their simple wisdom and understanding of human nature. I do not know what it will look like this time around but there is no doubt in my mind that the country is ready to tell its government: “we simply can’t comply”…

A Perfect Example…

I recently learned the High School I graduated from in 1977; John F Kennedy in the Bronx has finally closed its doors. I say finally because it has taken an ugly journey all too common with government run programs.

I was in the second graduating class of JFK. I was one of only a few in my neighborhood that attended a public High School. Most of my friend’s parents paid for their kids to go to Catholic High Schools known for teaching and discipline that graduated students competent enough to get a job or go to college. Most public High Schools in NYC were incubators of failure. But JFK did not start that way. That is one of the reasons my parents risked sending their oldest son to the school.

The school was approved for funding based on promises made to the neighborhood residents that surrounded the campus. Our families were told that JFK would be different; if the school was built the neighborhood would be guaranteed a good education, and would not suffer the fate of most of the other public schools in the city. The school was built, and for the four years I attended, many of the promises were realized.

The first principal of JFK High School was impressive and he took a no nonsense approach to education. Show up or get thrown out. Teachers were encouraged to teach and supported in their efforts to do so. Security was heavy to ensure “kids” with ill intent were kept out of classrooms and not allowed on the school grounds. He kept some sense of order.

The kids from the neighborhood came from decent family backgrounds not typical of most students in the inner city. The advantage of having interested and engaged families that supported the principal’s goals was a good foundation for the school’s academic success. For a little while the school operated with relative success for a public High School in the Bronx.

Over the years the school exploded to house over 6000 students. It was built for approximately 4000. The neighborhood changed and the parental engagement was replaced with gang activity. Eventually this activity resulted in a student being murdered at the school. The school achieved the ranking of being the worst High School in New York City. An achievement that I am truly sad to report being an Alumnus. An attempt was made to take the school and divide it into 6 different schools with a focus on different disciplines. The attempt to salvage the school with this effort failed.

So the inner city is left with a building built with hope and promise sitting empty. The public school system has failed another generation of inner city kids that will have less opportunity than their peers. It is heartbreaking to watch. It is really personal for me having seen it first hand and knowing that the answer is to allow private institutions to teach these kids. The answer is not to keep rewarding public schools with our tax dollars. The answer is more complex than just poor schools but if we don’t change the schools we will never break the chain of hopelessness for these inner city kids. We will pay tenfold for the failures of these schools and government dependency.

When will enough be enough? I’m not talking about money because NYC public schools spend in the vicinity of $15,000 a year per student, well over the countries average. When will we face reality that we need a solution that does not count on government bureaucracy? When will we let educational entrepreneurs take a shot at educating these kids? What have we got to lose?

Government run schools and programs always start with good intentions. Government programs always deliver the same results; failure. The government has no soul and cares nothing about the lives they destroy as long as politicians and bureaucrats get paid and keep their jobs. Government has proven test after test that they don’t understand the material and will continue to fail no matter how you mix up the questions on the test. Government does not deserve our trust or the trust of these victims within our cities. They are the most vulnerable because they can’t pick up and go to a better school in a better neighborhood. We need to bring better schools to them through private organizations with a passion to teach.

Trying something new is the least we can do for these kids. As public schools become havens for gangs, drugs, and danger these kids are left to the squalor of government and politics. They deserve a better effort on our part and what is the worst that can happen? These kids get an education that can save them from a life of dependency on a government that has failed them for generations…

The Tenth Amendment Rendered Meaningless…

If the governors of these United States don’t start stepping up to the plate in a more aggressive manner, the Tenth Amendment to the United States will be rendered meaningless. The constitution is already on life support, and the Tenth Amendment is the critical arguing point in this battle between centralized tyranny and local independence.

I shudder when I hear governors groveling at the altar of the federal government as Governor Elect Nikki Haley of South Carolina recently did when she asked the president to “allow South Carolina to opt out” of the healthcare bill. This is not constitutional leadership. We need our governors to start studying the history of this nation and start employing the same arguments that were made then, resulting in the Bill of Rights including the Tenth Amendment.

I get perplexed when I read our history and compare the political fights we are having today. It is appalling how weak our state governments have become compared to their domination at the founding of our country. Where did we go wrong? I believe the first fundamental principle we have allowed to slip is our understanding of history and our founding. Along the way politics, civics, and history have taken a back seat to pragmatism, and a casual undermining of our true history.

We have allowed big government advocates to paint big government as a compassionate institution that is there to help people. We have allowed the constitution and its fundamental principles to be undermined by tortured arguments by Supreme Court justices and power hungry presidents, as they mangled the original intent without a true debate of the ramifications these changes would have for future generations. We have allowed blind emotion to drive decisions that have destroyed millions of American lives with government dependency, and the only result; a few liberals feel good about themselves. We have forgotten how to argue on principle and have accepted short term gratification over standing on principle to achieve more difficult but sounder and moral results.

The Supreme Court has been allowed to become too powerful when the founders intent for the court was simply to determine the constitutionality of laws created by congress. It was never intended to be a body that created laws for the nation. It is an equal branch of government that has been used too often to provide cover for weak kneed politicians that don’t want to do the hard work they are constitutionally required to do. The states have become too complacent to bad federal law and have relegated their responsibility to provide for the states, rendering the Tenth Amendment meaningless.

When coal mine expansion in the state of West Virginia is being held up by a federal bureaucracy that is protecting bugs over jobs, and governors accept this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless. When the federal government believes that a smelt is more important than the farmer in California, and the governor accepts this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless. When our government is passing bills to force our kids to eat certain foods, and the governors accept this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless. When the federal government continues to make decisions affecting state budgets beyond the scope of its constitutional authority, and governors accept this as normal, the Tenth Amendment is rendered meaningless.

History proves that the Tenth Amendment was critical in the passing of the United States Constitution, and without it the states would have never ratified the document. The arguments for and against ratification were passionate and revolved around a desperate fear that a central government would one day dominate and limit the freedoms that individuals had sacrificed their lives to ensure. Today we have a central government that people fear is stealing their individual liberty and ability to pursue happiness. The Tenth Amendment is not meaningless, it is the pivotal amendment to return the federal government to a limited role and to protect the liberties our founders fought so hard to achieve…

The War on Wealth…

The left in this country, including this president have waged a final battle against the creation of wealth in this country. Since our founding, the American spirit has been driven by opportunity to better one’s circumstance through industrious labors. The people that came to this great land were lured by only one thing; opportunity to improve their lives through hard work and limited government intrusion.

The world was a different place before America, and opportunity to create wealth for your own consumption was a “foreign” concept. Most citizens of the day worked to improve the standing of the ruling class. There was little opportunity for individuals to prosper in the pre-America world. The world’s economic output was often incentivized through fear, coercion, and force. Not until the new American Experiment did the world have the chance to see how much more effective economic growth could be when put into the hands of the individual and the rewards of that labor left in the hands that created it.

The creation of wealth in America became the fuel that lifted millions of people around the world out of the most despicable circumstances through the generosity and ability created by individual ingenuity and wealth. When individuals are incentivized through private property and keeping the fruits of labor it is no mystery as to why wealth explodes and raises the circumstances of all within a society. It is simply the harnessing of human nature. Our instinct to provide for ourselves actually fuels our instincts to help our neighbor. The problem we have seen in America is that for too long the wealthy have been fueling compassion, and the recipients have forgotten where this charity comes from.

The tax system has become a mechanism to take one man’s fruits and distribute them to another for no sensible reason. We have seen generations of low income Americans become locked in a system that breeds dependency and steals the incentive to make it on their own. This system has become an industry with the captains of that industry being politicians. These politicians have a self interest in perpetuating poverty and dependency. They fund their “industry” by demonizing the wealth creators, creating envy, punishing wealth, and redistributing the wealth through punitive taxation. This war on wealth has created a class of people that now believe they are entitled to the wealth that is created by these individuals.

We are becoming morally bankrupt as a nation when we believe a person’s success should be a source of scorn and disgust. The question is never “when is enough, enough for the individual wealth creators”. The reality is the more wealth they create the more goes back into society in the form of jobs, investment, and charity. It is not the government’s role in America to decide that question. The government has become over reaching and must be returned to its constitutional role once again. These wealth creators should be celebrated as they were at the founding of this great republic. Without the incentives of individuals to keep the fruits of their labor we harvest less fruit. As the fruit diminishes the dependent class gets restless and demands more from the captains of their industry. The captains demand more from the wealth creators and we find ourselves back in a system where wealth creation is driven by fear, coercion, and force. The engine sputters to a halt and collapses on itself.

We are not far from this point right now. Our tax system must be utilized to provide only the services necessary to conduct a law abiding society. Individuals again must be incentivized through the rewards of their labor. Right now the wealth creators are slowing down their activity because they are being punished and demonized. The wealth creators have not received their rewards through any special circumstance but the industrious spirit they pursue. The envy, jealousy, and demonization of the wealthy is going to destroy the American Spirit. Wealth distribution has already destroyed the people dependent on others. If we don’t stop demonizing wealth we will have nothing to demonize in the very near future…