Just a few short reminders about the U.S. Constitution
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“A law that is repugnant to the Constitution is void.” John Marshall, Chief Justice United States Supreme Court, Marbury v. Madison 1803
“[S]hould Congress, under the pretext of executing its powers, pass laws for the accomplishment of objects not entrusted to the government, such [acts are] not the law of the land.” John Marshall, Chief Justice United States Supreme Court, McCulloch v. Maryland 1819
The power of the federal government is limited. It can only act in those areas that are assigned to it and only within the limitations of those assigned areas. The powers assigned to the federal government are (with a few exceptions) outlined in Article I Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution (the Enumerated Powers) and anything falling outside those powers are designated by Amendment X for disposition. The Congress cannot pass any law they so desire and any law they may pass that exceeds the enumerated powers is void.
The federal government may not pass a health care law. This means that the federal government has certain limited choices if they wish to have a health care law. Amend the Constitution to give the federal government authority over health care or ask the individual states to pass their own health care laws and block grant money to the states to support that
endeavor. Repeal (constitutional) then replace (unconstitutional) does not pass the smell test.
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From James Madison:
“With respect to the two words “general Welfare” I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. If the words obtained so readily a place in the “Articles of Confederation” and received so little notice in their admission into the present Constitution, and retained for so long a time a silent place in both, the fairest explanation is, that the words, in the alternative of meaning nothing or meaning everything, had the former taken for granted.” (Translation: If you have not been given the power to do something, you cannot use “general Welfare” as a justification for doing it. This is not the intention of these words.)
From Thomas Jefferson:
“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated.”
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
“The greatest [calamity] which could befall [us would be] submission to a government of unlimited powers.”
“Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”
The Welfare Clause is the most abused part of the United States Constitution. The forces of socialism claim it gives them the authority to pass any type of law they want to help people; this claim is false. They then cite certain Supreme Court rulings to buttress their claim; those rulings were invalid since the courts may not contradict the Constitution.
The people who wrote our founding documents were consistent in their writings about the Welfare Clause. They said you could not use the Welfare Clause as an excuse to exceed the Enumerated Powers of the Constitution. The destruction of the meaning of the Welfare Clause (coupled with the destruction of the meaning of the Commerce Clause) was the key to the destruction of the concept of limited government and the subsequent rise of socialism.
Lewis Shupe, Founder
U.S. Freedom Army
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