THE CITIZEN IN ME ASKS WHAT HAPPENED?

 

The tenth amendment in the bill of rights states “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 constitution divides the power to govern between the State and Federal government with these words. The citizen in me asks what happened?

Progressive politicians since Woodrow Wilson have been working nonstop to erode the effect of the tenth amendment. The constitution as ratified including the bill of rights had protection for individuals from overreach by their government in the form of the judiciary system. In addition to this the people were granted the sole right to elect representatives to the federal house of representatives for a term of two years. The framers of the constitution sought to protect the rights of the individual states within the articles but also by giving control of the senate to the state legislatures. Senators were not originally elected to the U.S. senate by a vote of the people. The two senators from each state served at the pleasure of the state legislatures and were tasked with representing them. The constitution limited the power of the federal government in another way by limiting it’s ability to collect money from citizens by taxation. The first imposition of an income tax by the legislature during the Wilson administration was struck down by the supreme court as unconstitutional. Proponents of an all powerful central government refused to be limited by this and worked successfully to pass the sixteenth amendment allowing for the collection of a federal income tax of up to 7%. Noting that income tax rates have varied ever since to levels as high as 90% the citizen in me asks what happened to our constitutional protections?

The framers had lived under the tyranny of the British monarchy and feared centralized power which is why the U.S. Constitution is primarily written to limit federal government power. Critics of this structure point to the countries founding document as outdated and in need of modernization. The commerce clause and the wording about providing for the common good have been so extended in meaning over the years that the original limitations on the power of the federal government are all but lost. For example; The department of education, the department of environmental protection, the department of the interior and the department of energy are unconstitutional at the federal level and all such authority is reserved to the states. Generation after generation of citizens have gone about their lives confident in their inalienable rights without realizing the slow and constant erosion of those rights by the progressive movement. People so self important and confident in their own ability to see the proper course for our lives that they draw more and more power to themselves. The progressive movement spearheaded by Woodrow Wilson created the federal reserve. Its charter states that it’s primary function is to provide a currency and maintain a stable value of that currency. The federal reserve is not a federal agency, it is made up of private banks without congressional oversight. I submit that the federal reserve is an utter failure at maintaining the value of our currency as a dollar today has been deflated in value to such an extent that it will only purchase 6% of what it would when the fed was formed. Printing money and pushing it into the economy devalues all of the money in circulation just as the policy of economic easing is doing today. The citizen in me asks how can this happen?

My opinion on this is simple to explain. We allow our politicians to spend more money than the internal revenue service collects and we further allow them to spend this borrowed money extravagantly in their home districts. This practice all but insures their reelection and also insures that the country spirals into debt. Self centered politicians won’t quit using the treasury to buy votes so the only way to maintain the graft is by devaluing the currency so that tax payers constantly pay larger and larger sums to pay off the debt. The appetite of politician’s for ever increasing budgets has exceeded even this vast resource and plunged the country into enormous debt.

In light of the disastrous federal takeover of the healthcare system the citizen in me asks how can this happen when we are supposed to be protected by our constitution? Is it possible that the poison pill built into our constitution by the framers in the form of an article 5 convention is needed to force the centralized government progressives in congress to live by the constitution they swore in their oath to uphold?