What do we mean when we say small government, ie, constitutionally limited government?

Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

Some of the areas/functions the federal government should not be involved in per the constitution (see enumerated powers of congress and the Bill of Rights, the 9th and 10th amendments, etc):

1. Health
2. Education
3. Welfare
4. Housing
5. Mortgages
6. Student loans
7. Subsidies
8. Health insurance
9. Retirement insurance
10. Mandating insurance contracts of any kind
11. Trade unions
12. Government workers unions (huge conflict of interest)
13. Jobs (other than not creating an environment that kills them)
14. Banking/finance
15. Free markets
16. The stock market
17. The economy (other than not overstepping its constitutional bounds and creating havoc)
18. The working environment
19. Global warming
20. Crime in general (other than treason, piracy, counterfeiting, etc)
21. Marriage (gay or otherwise)
22. Abortion (other protecting than the constitutional right to life)
23. Infanticide (ditto)
24. Euthanasia (ditto)
25. Judicial activism
26. Leveling the playing field for minorities
27. Ditto for immigrants (legal or otherwise)
28. Ditto for women
29. Ditto for hispanics
30. Ditto for gays
31. Ditto for students
32. Ditto for seniors
33. Ditto for the poor
34. Ditto for the middle class
35. Ditto for singling out the wealthy for special punishment
36. Ditto for any other class or special interest group (see equality under the law)
37. Using the news media as propaganda organ
38. Using the entertainment industry as propaganda organ
39. Using educational institutions as socialist indoctrination centers
40. Conducting war on talk radio
41. Suppressing freedom of speech
42. Oppressing freedom of religion
43. Suppressing inter-state commerce (the commerce clause was intended to keep commerce flowing between the states with no restrictions or tariffs)
44. Conducting war on coal, oil, gas, energy
45. Conducting war on farming, fishing, mining, timber, manufacturing, industry
46. Conducting war on religious freedom
47. Conducting war on right to freely exercise religion
48. Conducting war on Christianity
49. Conducting war on right to keep and bear arms
50. Conducting war on state powers
51. Conducting war on liberty itself
52. etc, etc, etc.

It's a never ending list and rapidly expanding as fast as our now virtually UNLIMITED unconstitutional BIG government is rapidly expanding, regardless of party in power.

Think about the thousands of areas where our federal government has granted itself powers to control and regulate, then compare them to the very short list of enumerated powers:

Section. 8.

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;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

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;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

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;

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

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.

See also:

AMENDMENT IX

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

AMENDMENT X

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.

[SierraWasp]

I'm going to see if that John Quincy Adams quote will fit on my tagline. Nope. It wouldn't quite fit.

I grew so weary of people trying to sway FReepers that they were throwing their vote away if they didn't vote for Arnold Schwartzenegger in CA's historic gubernatorial Recall Election.

Why do so many wish to become king makers and try to stampede people into climbing on to their bandwagon, instead of voting on principle for someone who is principled???

So many have died defending our right to express our political preferences as individuals see fit, not as some supposed hot-to-trot political operative sheepherder tries to shame/indimidate one to do!!!

Sorry I had to truncate the quote to make it fit my tagline and wish I'd known about it some years ago. Bless you heart for bringing it to everyone's attention!!!

[cripplecreek]

I don’t even want to talk about light bulbs, Fred Upton is the next district over from mine. Hopefully the little emperor will be primaried by the candidate with the funny name. (Jack Hoogendyk)

[LibLieSlayer]

We may never see all of it turned back in our lifetimes but I would bet that we see Consitutional reforms take hold in our lifetimes... one way or the other... it will happen... and I pray for it daily.

LLS

[LibLieSlayer]

We three are of like minds.

LLS

[GraceG]

How about tossing out any law that has used the so called “commerce clause” to justify it’s constiutionality?

[Jim Robinson]

Absolutely. Especially any written in the last 100 years or so anyway.

[KC_Lion]

Lets not forget Athens, Tennessee, and what they had to do to get their government back.

Thank You SierraWasp for your Kind words

[GraceG]

I would be happy if there was a general consensus within the population that “more freedom means you need more personal responsibility”.

Instead we (as a society) seem to think that “freedom MEANS freedom FROM responsibility”.

Take the Drug War. There is a reason we HAD to have a constitutional amendment to ban the sale of alcohol because back when it was passed enough people realized that just any old law passed in congress to ban alcohol nationwide would be un-constitutional and thus they had to MAKE IT PART OF THE CONSTITUTION to make it have effect. Of course it even violated the “Spirit of the Constitution” in that it was an Amendment that limited what the citizens could do and not the government like many other “Progressive Amendments passed around the same time”.

Because of the screwball intepretation of the “Commerce Clause” by the seditious FDR surepeme court over the decision of a farmer to raise wheat in the 70’s they were able to justify the “war on drugs” which while “having good intentions” has done a lot to erode the personal liberty of the large percentage of american who do no use drugs in the first place in the name of the “public good”.

I do not think drugs are good, but I think it is the states responsiblity to deal with it and not the federal governments.

I would be happy if we took the what the average person pays to the state government and what they pay to the federal government and “Flip it around” and then split every federal program except the millitary and national security into 50 pieces and hand them back to the states.

Bring the federal government back to what is prescribed in the constitution and only use Federal millitary assets against foreign powers and NEVER use the Federal millitary against ANY United States citizen.

Also make funding the newly limited federal government on a limited tarif of no more than 10%like it used to be in the “good olde days” before there was the horrible class warfare inciting thing called a “federal progressive income tax”.

Then the liberal states can choke on all their wonderful programs while the states with common sense lead the way in growth and prosperity by cutting all they would like.

I would also give back over 95% of the “federal land” in the western states back to the states themselves. (Federal Millitary bases can stay owned by the Fed, or even better reneted from the states by the federal government in some sorta arrangement).

[CatherineofAragon]

"Dude, preach it! I’m working for down ticket TEA Party candidates wherever I can support them. I tied myself in knots defending some of the “compassionate conservative” pieces of President Bush; I supported mccain when Sarah came on the ticket. I “came into politics” during Dole. NOW I have this Romeny idiot as my only choice? Screw that. No longer anything GOP here, I’m just a Constitutional Conservative and to all those out there that try and lay that bullshit line on me “not voting for Romney is a vote for Obama”; piss off, party hack."

::::::applause::::::

[Lazamataz]

I love you, CatherineofAragon.

This is no passing fling. This is a once-in-a-lifetime love.

[CatherineofAragon]

I am SPEECHLESS with this honor.

Love you, Laz!

[Carry_Okie]

Here is what it means to me: Leave me alone. I have work to do, a family to raise, and a G_d to worship. I manage my affairs with justice and forbearance. I don’t need a blasted government except to execute real criminals and control our borders. Go away.

[Responsibility2nd]

What do we mean when we say small government, ie, constitutionally limited government?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ronald Reagan understood the need for small government. Here are but a few of my favorite quotes from America's greatest president....

 

 

 

 

“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.”

 

“If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be one nation gone under.”

 

“Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

“I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.”

 

“The federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government.”

“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!”

 

“Government does not solve problems. It subsidizes them.”

[Lazamataz]

I am SPEECHLESS with this honor.

(Best Antonio Bandares accent) No no no.... do not speak... do not spoil this moment.... just kiss me....

[DanMiller]

That might mean freeloaders don’t get free stuff.

That would be terrible! The Declaration of Independence guarantees us free stuff and more. It is our Human Right not to have to work to enjoy our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. How can we pursue happiness if we have to work for stuff?

[M Kehoe]

Good evening.

Catherine, Laz will love you and then leave you. I know of some of his conquests. You should see all the dead bodies he's left behind over these years.

Run Catherine, run!

5.56mm

[Jim Robinson]

Yup. The inalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, free of government interference or intervention. Self-governance.

[DJ MacWoW]

“The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.” Edmund Burke

“It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government." This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power, is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. (October 27, 1964)” Ronald Reagan

[Political Junkie Too]

More wisdom from Thomas Paine...

In The Rights Of Man, Paine begins his discussion on the creation of the United States Constitution by examining the process that Pennsylvania followed for creating their state constitution.

Paine concludes his review with this description of the behaviors that followed.

From Chapter 4 — Of Constitutions:

Here we see a regular process — a government issuing out of a constitution, formed by the people in their original character; and that constitution serving, not only as an authority, but as a law of control to the government. It was the political bible of the state. Scarcely a family was without it. Every member of the government had a copy; and nothing was more common, when any debate arose on the principle of a bill, or on the extent of any species of authority, than for the members to take the printed constitution out of their pocket, and read the chapter with which such matter in debate was connected.

That was in 1791. In 2010, we have Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi incredulously questioning "Are you serious? Are you serious?"

-PJ

[CatherineofAragon]

You had to do Antonio, right? Because I love him.

Well, at least I did before he went all saggy.....