Posted on 01/16/2009 10:37:19 AM PST by reaganaut1
While much of the debate over the $700 billion federal bailout plan has focused on whether the money is being spent wisely or well, concerns are growing among many conservatives about its constitutionality.
Some conservatives have argued that the law creating the program, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which Congress passed hastily in October, violates constitutional principles that limit the amount of power that lawmakers can delegate to the executive branch.
They also maintain that the enormous bailout plan has illegally grown beyond its original focus on the financial services industry to include a bailout of the auto industry and more.
Robert A. Levy, the chairman of the Cato Institute, a libertarian organization in Washington, said in an interview that the bailout program, which goes by the acronym TARP for Troubled Assets Relief Program, goes beyond the realm of delegation the courts should allow. Mr. Levy said that earlier cases had found such delegation was appropriate if Congress laid down “an intelligible principle” that provided clear guidance to an agency or a regulator. But that, he said, is precisely what is missing in the bailout.
“There’s no intelligible principle that I could discern,” Mr. Levy said.
Now the FreedomWorks Foundation, which was founded in 1984 and declares itself to be “leading the fight for lower taxes, less government and more freedom,” says it plans to file a lawsuit against the program.
The group’s chairman is Dick Armey, the former Republican House majority leader. A memorandum the group distributed to Congress on Thursday laid out its argument that “when Congress delegates so much authority to the executive branch with so few rules to guide its discretion, Congress unconstitutionally transfers its lawmaking power to the executive.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Yes absolutly it is!!!!!
That it is unconstitutional is irrelevant. Our rulers are not even considering the constitutional issues involved. Not once have I heard or read that Bush, Paulson, Cheney, Hussein, Reid, Pelosi or anyone in a position of real power has even brought up the constitution as a serious matter for discussion in regards to the current expansion of government.
The only time our rulers invoke the constitution is when they think they can use it for political advantage. But this tactic is waning rapidly as our rulers have come to understand that the vast majority of the electorate either don’t understand what they are talking about or don’t care.
The constitution is now whatever our rulers say it is. It has no intrinsic meaning. Our rulers find rights where there are none and abrogate rights that are clearly stated in the document. We are now a nation ruled by caprice and political fad. This is a recipe for chaos and, eventually, tyranny and rebellion.
Hussein’s election is not the beginning of the end of the American experiment. It is the end of the end.
Not sure what they used to further their sedition. What they do not realize is they are trying to herd cats !
Ain’t gonna work......
Progressives think that there is a constitutional right to health care, jobs where you live, housing and food.
a really good article that sums up my feelings on the government deciding how to be charitable with my money.
We have progressed regressed from our Constitutional Republic form of government to rule by a coterie of elites who govern by feeling and whim, ignoring the constitution and constitutional laws.
The prime duties of government are three. First, to protect the national territory; secondly to preserve peace within its boundaries; and thirdly to ensure that every family unit of the nation has space in the nation's territory for a home and a means of livelihood The first two of these duties arc recognised today, but are inadequately performed because of the neglect of the third. Any family which lacks a home and a livelihood must either perish, or be an incubus on the rest of society, supported by charity, as in former times, or as in modern times, by poor relief provided by the state and funded by the taxpayer.
Because only conservatives are concerned about The Constitution?
Of course, your correct.....a given !
Stay safe !
Nearly everything the Republican and Democratic party are doing now days are unConstitutional. That old paper doesn’t slow them down a bit.
Un-Constitutional? According to our left-leaning politicans no such concept exists on *their* end on the political spectrum. But on the right? Whoa! Everything there is un-Constitutional!
In my never ending quest to read to the end of the Internet, I found this little bit of trivia over at The LA Times I hope you like it.
The line that wants to be a headline: "I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers," he said.
Guess who said that!
Taxation without Representation
‘an excluded class of families who are denied the opportunity to provide for themselves’
No one should be ‘denied’ opportunity based on abilities. Meaning someone earning $7K should have a home priced $350K.
‘But land can be paid for by those who occupy it’
There should be payment. Not something for nothing.
The difference being that the ‘progressives’ think their ‘rights’ should be given to them by the government for merely existing as an American citizen.
That sadly ceased to matter years ago.
Oh yes,, without any doubt. Under that old constitution, the one we used to use in the Beaver Cleaver days, it would have been completely forbidden!
That was a good constitution. I remember it warmly, We should use it again someday if we get a chance.
Wicker v Filburn took a long way towarn unlimited government. A great deal of sedition is couched as “pertaining to interstate commerce” such as laws regulating your 20 year old firearm that is not for sale.
BS needs to end.
Thanks for sharing that. It was a good read. If only our elected officials held that same belief.
It will and again it will be the working man and woman that foots the bill !
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