Iola High School
Iola, Kansas
Teacher: Loretta Arnold
The Government Controlling Our Lives
By Jordan Spears
12th Grade
When agreeing with Roger Pilon’s testimony before the Senate Committee in 2005, I realized that Congress is taking the Constitution for granted. Before, I had never really paid attention to what goes on but after reading Pilon’s testimony before the Senate Committee, Congress is taking the Constitution for granted.
Pilon said that most of what the federal government is doing today is unconstitutional because it’s done without constitutional authority. Congress is reading the Constitution the way they want it to be and doing things that they are unauthorized to do, specifically spending federal funds. Most spending in the United States is said to be for the General Welfare Clause, which is not true. Congress is using the General Welfare Clause as an excuse in order to get away with spending. According to former President James Madison, there is only a limited number of spending options when in actuality Congress is spending money on whatever they wish. Congress has no authority for the spending of federal money for things such as “education, agriculture, disaster relief, retirement programs, house, health care, day care, the arts, public broadcasting, and so on.”
The Constitution was written so the government would serve citizens when we needed somebody to stand up for us but in a limited way. The way Congress is using the Constitution, citizens are serving the government. Our Constitution serves four main functions: to authorize, institute, empower, and limit the federal government. The way Congress has been doing things, they have not been following these simple functions. Congress powers are to tax, borrow, regulate commerce, and the power to enact such laws that are necessary and proper for executing the government’s other enumerated powers. When looking at the Constitution, we wonder why Congress powers were enumerated, thus not giving authorization to do as they wished. This problem results in Congress saying their spending was on “general welfare.”
To take care of these problems, Congress needs to go back and re-read the Constitution the way it was meant to be. In doing so, it would solve many problems. Citizens need to stand up for themselves and gain control….
Answers to the Required
Reading Questions
Q1- Explain what Roger Pilon means when he speaks of a bifurcated Bill of Rights. Describe what happened in 1938, according to his testimony.
Congress rewrote the General Welfare Act. The control of economic affairs was
split into two forms, fundamental and non-fundamental.
Q2-
Give three examples of what is described in the testimony as fundamental rights
and three examples of non-fundamental rights.
Fundamental: 1) life 2) liberty 3) pursuit of happiness
Non-fundamental: 1) taxes 2) voting 3) capital investments.
Q3- Define
Enumerated powers: The powers that are described in the U.S. Constitution.
Living constitution: The living constitution which changes with time.
Politicizing the constitution: When the constitution is used for political or personal gain.
Q4- Why does Roger Pilon claim a living constitution is worse than no constitution at all?
He claims that a living constitution changes with the change of political
leaders and the climate of the times. He says this is fundamentally wrong.
Q5- Explain what is meant by moral legitimacy, political legitimacy and legal legitimacy. Give your own example of each.
Moral legitimacy is the rightful duties of the common citizen. What is right
against wrong.
Political legitimacy is the right that is given to people elected into offices.
Each office has specific rights.
Legal legitimacy is what is lawfully right. Every person, office, and group has
legal rights they must obey. All are balanced and important, as they work
together.
Q6- Dr.
Pilon spends some time enumerating five implications of an illegitimate
constitution. Name the five implications and state why one seems to be the most
serious in your personal opinion.
1) The view of legitimacy in light of a constitutional republic. The Constitution sets the powers, not the people through periodic elections.
2) Court jurisdictions in cases challenging federal statutes. Does Congress have authority to enact statutes and how may the act implicate rights?
3) Disrespecting for the Constitution entails disrespect for the rule of law itself.
4) When constitutional integrity declines, we lose the discipline a constitution is designed to impose.
5) The economic implications of effectively unlimited government; the connection between liberty and prosperity.
Q7- When he says "those true to its conception as a means of founding, maintaining and promoting a great nation in the public good.", is Mr. Frankfurter talking about the wisdom of enumerated powers or the constitution's preordained destiny as a living document?
He is talking about the enumerated powers of the Constitution.
Q8- Do you agree, with Felix Frankfurter, that the Founding Fathers refused to write limitations and qualifications into the U.S. Constitution?
No, the Founding Fathers wrote limits and qualifications into the Constitution. The federal government’s control is limited and controlled by the elected members of Congress.
Q9- Compare the manner in which the U.S. Constitution was changed after the Civil War with the way changes were made to the Constitution during the New Deal era.
The New Deal era changed the Constitution, just as the living document provides. Just as the Constitution provided for the crisis during the Civil War, Congress provided for the country during the great depression.
Q10- U.S. Constitution prevents legislators from making the needs of Americans their priority. This paragraph claims that the expressed purpose of the U. S. Constitution is the expressed purpose of the U.S. Constitution to provide for government at all levels: the American man, the elected offices, and the enforcement of the law.
Q11- FDR made a political speech for the times; the eve of WW II. References were made in his speech that may be relevant to our position in the world today. Comment on the similarities.
FDR’s speech is relevant to our position in the world today. American’s play a more vital role in global politics and security than ever before. If we are able to help our own people during the most desperate times in the 1960’s, than we are better able to help desperate people in other countries today.
Q12- Comment on whether you think the "new idea" come to "dominate thought about government" is still the dominate idea or has the past 70 years turned it into an old idea that needs to be reformed? Make these comments brief as this question is the crux of the paper you will be preparing for submittal.
We need to make sure we stand solid on the foundation of our enumerated powers of the Constitution. If not, we will slide into political disaster. We must wake up, become education, and stand on democracy.