I Wish My GOP Did That
Posted by Andy on November 7th, 2008
I got an interesting email a few minutes ago from the Michigan Republican party. In it I found this great little article.
COMMENTARY:
Which section of the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government the power to bail out banks? If you don’t know, it could be because no constitutional authority exists for such an action. It is all too common for both Congress and the executive branch to ignore that the Constitution limits what they can and cannot do.
The United States is not a parliamentary democracy; it is a constitutional federal republic, giving basic rights to the people and limiting the powers of government. America’s Founding Fathers understood that simple majoritarian democracy could trample the rights of minorities and could lead to tyranny. One of the major reasons for the relative success of the American republic is the difficulty of making significant changes in the government structure and policies. Many find this frustrating, but it allows momentary passions to cool and a more deliberative process to take place. As a result, fewer mistakes are made, in contrast to many parliamentary democracies. Because it was more difficult to put socialist schemes in place in the U.S., such as the nationalization of major industries, the people observed the failure of such programs in parliamentary countries, which diminished the enthusiasm for doing it in America.
A number of constitutional scholars, including former New Jersey Supreme Court Judge Andrew P. Napolitano and Robert A. Levy (who spearheaded the recent successful suit to overturn Washington, D.C.’s unconstitutional ban on gun ownership), have argued that the bank bailout scheme is unconstitutional. In a recent article in the Legal Times,Robert Levy stated: “The federal government has no constitutional authority to spend taxpayers’ money to buy distressed assets, much less to take an ownership position in private financial institutions. And Congress has no constitutional authority to delegate nearly plenary legislative power to the Treasury secretary, an executive branch official.” (This violates the separation of powers provisions of the Constitution.)
It goes on.
There’s a ton of other great links in this email. I’ll have to link to them later. Stay tuned and pray someday our state party will consider doing something like this or, God forbid, pointing people to the great local blogging community.
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November 7th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
“Which section of the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government the power to bail out banks?”
That would be Article I, Section 8.
Including the power:
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce … and among the several States
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin
Not a big fan of this, but one could make a pretty solid constitutional argument that Congress is within its powers to do this. An with the supreme court we have, one would not even have to make any argument.
This is the same stupid argument people were making that the senate bill was a tax bill and couldn’t be passed (They actually pulled an old House Tax bill and added amendments to get around this).
But this line of argument will make you a big fan with the Ron Paul crowd.
Just be sure to bring your tin foil hat.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Sam,
You can make a constitutional argument for bailing out PRIVATE banks from Article 1 section 8?
That is more than a stretch to believe that the founders intended the Federal Government to have the power to fund private industries. I realize that the criminals in the courts and congress make this argument, rational people do not.
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 defense 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 a 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;
Those of us who believe that the Federal Government may operate outside of its authority and support Ron Paul wear tin foil hat?
Remember it was John McCain who supported this bailout not Ron Paul.
Which position did you prefer?????????????.