Just Let Me -- G -- Indoctrinate You!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

It's an Article I, Section 8, Thing

Dear America,

it's absolutely crazy that we are even talking about this.

going back to Aristotle:
"Even the best of men in authority 
are liable to be corrupted by passion.  
We may conclude then 
that the law is reason without passion, 
and it is therefore preferable to any individual."

amen.

what is absurd is listening to the arguments from the Left as they gaze upon the members of this Supreme Court -- the "individuals" in position to decide the fate of Obamacare; they are whining in unison, saying it's just not fair; and when they break it down to the brass tacks, they find themselves fixated on one guy -- Kennedy -- lamenting it's all up to him.

WRONG AGAIN.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHY this government MADE REASON (without passion) the FOUNDATION of the LAW of the LAND.

What does the LAW say?  What limitations does the CONSTITUTION provide?  Where are the boundaries drawn between the INDIVIDUAL, the STATE, and the Federal Government?

America was designed in direct opposition to anything that appeared, intimated, screamed, conjured, conspired, to look, act, dream like we were run by a RULER(s) of any kind.

MAN was NOT going to decide for us; LAW was going to decide.

Our founders created a limitation of power to the federal government to allow for the people's freedom and liberty to reign.  It was conceived from the Age of Reason to manifest a Reign of Reason.  And it was to protect us from ourselves -- and days like this.

But MAN has usurped the LAW time and time again; and in a stunning turn of fate, has done so in such a way -- over time, trial and error -- that it would seem totally reasonable.

This is what I don't get: since when did the body commissioned solely to protect the LAW become a political push me-pull you vehicle driven by the whims of man?

If we focused upon what the LAW actually says -- without the passion, prejudice and pre-existing conditions --  just how happy would we all be right about now?

You know, Patrick Henry, didn't like The Fed one bit; he considered himself an "anti-federalist" -- someone who basically wanted to give the federal government jack....nothing, nada, no power if we can at all help it.

He fought against Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 (generally recognized as The Commerce Clause) in a very big way; and when tied to what people call The Necessary and Proper Clause (what some people think of as a blank check of no checks/balances whatsoever), Henry deemed the whole thing entirely unnecessary.  He was afraid that it would ultimately lead us into an era with UNLIMITED federal power, complete with unchecked passion and without constraint.  oh Patrick, ssshhh, you had me at 'NO'.

THIS IS HOW SECTION 8 begins:

"The Congress shall have 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; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;"

And beginning with the first clause of great interest with regards to the health care law debate:

"To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes."
blah blah blah la di da di da da...cue clauses of distinction...the coining of money...being the keeper of the "post offices and post roads"...which is funny, isn't it?  one of the main things the Fed was supposed to be fully responsible for...and then moving into at least nine clauses providing for the COMMON DEFENSE, and related.  But now, without further ado, let's cue the second clause of great interest:
"To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."

Providing for individual HEALTH CARE is NOT what the founders had in mind when they spelled out "GENERAL WELFARE." The greatest concern of the federal government was to remain one thing -- to provide for the COMMON DEFENSE (oh right, and make a few coins that are worth something, and send mail).  But the militia was basically it.  How uncomplicated could we be?

Health Care is awfully specific to every individual -- as well as, to the state (compare California's health care woes to Kansas, if you will).  So specific, in fact, THIS "Affordable Care Act" forces the individual to pay for other people's contraceptives, forces all people to pay for services they do not personally need, and extinguishes all possibility for private insurance companies to compete equally and fairly with a universal coverage package provided by the federal government.  The one that forcibly mandates the individual to pay for it one way or another -- or get fined, taxed with a penalty --  you say "2-may-toe", I say "2-ma-toe".

When the founders came up with "General Welfare," it was all about things like... keeping the lights on at the White House yet to be ... paying the long distance phone bill to compensate for secret conversations between foreign nations (of course, after creating the very conditions for Ma Bell to come into being, that is).  Any expenditure was to be reserved for the basic, general needs in keeping with the expressed intentions to uphold a free, and general, Republic -- not the other way around.

"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."  The Tenth Amendment

hello.

The truth is, anything outside a truly limited federal government is too much.

From Thomas Jefferson:
"The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the states are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to respecting foreign nations.  Let the general government be reduced to foreign  concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves, and our general government may be reduced to a very simple organization, and a very inexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants [referring to CIVIL servants...yeah right, like that's what they are now...but we digress]."

"A very simple organization, and a very inexpensive one."  oh my...

You know,  back in the forties, the federal government got involved to tell Americans -- business owners actually -- exactly how much they could pay their employees.  It became a doctrine under the days of FDR to control the market with both a minimum wage and a maximum wage.  A fine idea, in theory.

So how did American enterprises and entrepreneurs respond?

They began to provide something new, something really keen and totally cool:  a benefits package!

In turn, America, all of a sudden and totally unexpectedly, entered into a new age -- an age which limited the power of the business owner to pay the employee a wage based on what the market will bear, in tune with the experience and education of the candidate himself; with nudge and by shove, the employer was forced to work within specific guidelines and constraints...for the "betterment" of the "general welfare" by an overzealous big government.  To do this -- to succeed and be competitive with other companies, all wanting the same thing -- they had to tack on benefits (health insurance, paid vacation, sick days, a pension, maternity leave, bereavement leave, and so on and so on).

The business of commerce became commingled with individual [Employer and Employee] rights and responsibilities and privileges and duties.  And we have never been the same since.

[And in a warped way -- the business of just doing the right thing, in keeping with honoring an honest, trusting, respectful, working relationship between two parties was superseded by a higher authority, paving the way for this era of litigation, large and small, and a tidal wave of regulations and taxation]

Anywho....all of a sudden, health insurance became a commodity of just good business practice; and from then on, we never looked back; "benefits" became something expected, demanded, as a "right" of the individual.   By definition, the good intention back behind a decent benefits package, became something teetering on the obscene.

Something that was restricted to the personal whims and needs -- and controlled purely by the individual, who could buy his own insurance and carry it with him no matter where he worked or lived -- became a tool of the system.  Growing into the system we see today.  

If you have time -- and taking a totally different tack now -- read the horrific precedence laid out "under the law" dating back to the Wickard vs. Filburn case, of 1942.  I found a really good summary of the case and how it pertains to what is currently happening HERE. 

It was just about a farmer having a little extra wheat, and just look at what happened!

So, here's my final thought on the day and I promise to leave you all in peace and quiet --

"If the day should ever arrive (which God forbid!) when the people of the different parts of our country shall allow their local affairs to be administered by prefects sent from Washington, and when the self-government of the states shall have been so far lost as that of the departments of France, or even so closely limited as that of the counties of England -- on that day the political career of the American people will have been robbed of its most interesting and valuable features, and the usefulness of this nation will be lamentably impaired."  John Fiske, The Critical Period of American History, 1783-1789 -- plucked from The 5000 Year Leap

 Make it a Good Day, G

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