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The Department of Homeland Control

Can America Awake From The Dream World?

Partial Abortion Ban - The Betrayal Is Now Complete

By David Brownlow
September 9, 2003
NewsWithViews.com

Think back to those nostalgic days when the Republicans pretended they were fighting to "reduce the size of the federal government." I don't know about you, but they had me hook, line and sinker. I really believed in them. It was maddening that with all the effort and energy we spent trying to rein in the growth of the federal government, it only continued to grow (up over a million federal employees since 1999!). But we hung in there with the Republicans, failure after failure, because we were sure the Democrats were the reason nothing was ever accomplished.

Well, it turns out that "big government" was never the real problem. It also turns out the Republicans had no more intention of "reducing the size of government" than the Democrats did. All the talk and all the partisan fights were just a diversion to keep us preoccupied, while the real damage was being done behind the scenes.

There is no doubt our federal government is a huge problem that has grown into an enormous behemoth, chewing up the last few remaining pieces of our freedom. And there can be no argument that our government has gotten bigger every year, no matter which faction within the one-party system is in charge. But, big government is not the problem. Big government is only a symptom of the problem.

The real problem is that we are being ruled by a group of elitist politicians who absolutely refuse to obey the law. We can fight the symptoms all we want, but until we deal with the core issue - that lawbreakers are ruling our nation - we have no chance of getting this mess straightened out.

There are so many of our leaders breaking the law on a continual basis that our government has come to more closely resemble a criminal enterprise than it does a legitimate government. And whenever lawbreakers rule a country, chaos and loss of freedom will always result. Exploding budgets, tyrannical courts, rampant abortion, undeclared wars, elaborate income transfer schemes, a debased currency, $450 billion a year deficits and a burgeoning federal police state are only the most obvious indications that we are being swindled out of the very lifeblood of our country.

How have we gotten ourselves into this situation? It is because we have allowed criminals and lawbreakers to rule us.

The very first sentence of the Constitution essentially defines the entire structure of our government. "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." The rest of the Constitution lays out "All the legislative powers" in great detail, which consist of the limitations and restrictions that were to be placed on the federal government. It is obvious that our founders were determined to grant Congress only very limited, narrowly defined powers.

How far we have veered off that path!

The powers vested to Congress are specific, non-ambiguous and were intended to be a comprehensive enumeration of the powers of Congress. They were not intended to be a set of guidelines or a list of suggestions. The limitations of power were designed into our government because the framers of the Constitution were very aware (with brilliant foresight) that power consolidated at the federal level would lead to an eventual loss of our freedom.

Please take a moment to look at a summary of the vested powers of Congress. Aside from these, Congress has no other powers. All other powers belong to the states and the people. Any encroachment by the Congress into state and individual powers (which is nearly everything they do!) is an illegal usurpation of power.

Congress has the vested power to:

� Provide for the common defense
� Raise, fund and regulate the Army and the Navy
� Borrow money on the credit of the United States
� Declare war
� Approve treaties, Cabinet-level appointments, and appointments to the Supreme Court (Senate only)
� Regulate the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court
� Impeach (House only) and try (Senate only) federal officers
� Introduce Constitutional amendments, call a convention
� Override presidential vetoes
� Regulate commerce with foreign countries and between the states
� Establish rules for citizenship
� Coin money and regulate the value of currency, determine punishment for counterfeiting
� Define and punish crimes committed at sea
� Establish federal courts
� Create all bills for raising revenue (House only)
� Levy and collect taxes, duties.
� Pay all debts
� Organize and arm the state militias
� Exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the District of Columbia.
� Establish post offices and postal roads
� Create bankruptcy laws
� Regulate patents and copyrights
� Assemble at least once in every year on the first Monday in December
� Establish times for elections
� Discipline it's own members
� Oversee all federal property and possessions (what few there should be)
� Fill a vacancy in the Presidency in cases of death or inability
� Receive electoral votes for the Presidency
� Keep and publish a journal of its proceedings
� Conduct a census every ten years

As you can see, these vested powers range from the mundane, such as writing a Congressional journal, on up to the big ones like raising and regulating an army, declaring wars and approving treaties. From the level of detail written into these defined powers, we know that the framers of the Constitution intended to leave very little to interpretation. These powers were to be the entirety of the powers of Congress.

If any were tempted to step outside of these specific limitations of power, the Constitution goes even further and mandates that Congress pass only the laws that are "necessary and proper" for executing the vested powers.

Conspicuously missing from these clearly defined powers is any Congressional authority for involvement in education, health care, food distribution, housing, foreign aid, farming, transportation, spotted owls, retirement, job creation, energy production, gun regulation, space exploration, "family planning", day care, the "arts", community development etc.

In other words, roughly 80% of the programs for which the Congress provides funding, are in fact illegal.

Check out the 2003 budget [Click Here] and try to find even the slightest correlation between this budget and the powers that have been granted to Congress.

How they could read the Constitution and come up with a budget like this is a total mystery.

It is impossible to believe that those who serve us in Congress do not understand the Constitutional limitations that have been placed on their power. Since they ignore those limitations with impunity, we can therefore conclude that the vast majority of those who swore an oath to defend the Constitution did so knowing full well they intended to break that oath (and the law) on a daily basis.

People who break the law on such a massive scale usually end up behind bars. But, since the politicians seem to be immune from the laws you and I must obey, the only thing we can do is work to kick every one of the offenders out of office.

Unfortunately, it will be quite a challenge to replace the current group of lawbreakers with politicians who will be any more likely to obey the law. (Any who could ever get elected, that is!) Nearly a century of brainwashing by our government schools has left us with few who understand and believe in the Constitutional principal of limited government.

One thing is for sure - if we continue to send the same lawbreakers back to Washington year after year, the current downward spiral is only going to get worse.

A "lesser of two evils" voting trend has left us with a Congress that is packed full of dishonest and evil men who are working tirelessly in their efforts to destroy our country. Since the courts have long ago abandoned any pretense of defending the Constitution, we are the only ones can bring some sanity back into our government.

There is no easy answer, but it has become clear that the solution will not be found within the "two-party" charade we call the Democratic and the Republican parties, which for all practical purposes have merged into one. We need to try something different.

Daniel Webster was thinking a couple of hundred years ahead when he said:

"I shall exercise every facility I possess in asking to prevent the Constitution from being nullified, destroyed or impaired: and even though I should see it fall, I will still, with voice feeble, perhaps, but earnest as ever issued from human lips, and with fidelity and zeal which nothing can extinguish � call on the people to come to its rescue." Daniel Webster, 1782-1852

The hour is late. If ever there was a time when our Constitution needed to be rescued, the time is now.

 Dave Brownlow, an engineer, has been designing and selling industrial automation control systems since 1979. He lives in Clackamas OR with his wife Suzanne and their four children. Active in the pro-life movement and conservative politics for over 20 years, David ran for US Congress in the 3rd District of Oregon in 2002 on the Constitution Party ticket. He has announced his plans to run again in 2004. His Web-Site www.davebrownlow.com  E-Mail: dave@davebrownlow.com

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"There is no doubt our federal government is a huge problem that has grown into an enormous behemoth, chewing up the last few remaining pieces of our freedom. And there can be no argument that our government has gotten bigger every year, no matter which faction within the one-party system is in charge."