Political Loathsomeness
By Walter E. Williams
Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Do any of the prospective nominees of either party deserve respect from the American people? The answer partially depends on your knowledge, values and respect for the U.S Constitution.

When either Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or John McCain take office, they are going to place their hand on the Bible and take the oath, "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

It will be a phony affirmation, but what's worse is that the chief justice of the United States, who administers the oath, and the average American will believe the new president.

You say, "Hey, Williams, that's a pretty tall charge! Explain yourself." There's a measure introduced in every Congress since 1995, by Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., called The Enumerated Powers Act that would require that all bills introduced in the U.S. Congress include a statement setting forth the specific constitutional authority under which the law is being enacted.

The Enumerated Powers Act currently has 44 co-sponsors in the House. In the Senate, it has never had a single co-sponsor, and that's a Senate that includes our three presidential aspirants. The question one might ask is why would Sens. Obama, Clinton and McCain have a distaste for, and fail to support, a measure binding them to what the Constitution actually permits?
There's a two-part answer to that question. First, few congressmen, including our presidential aspirants, have the integrity, decency and courage to be bound by the Constitution, but more important is that congressmen and presidents simply reflect the constitutional ignorance or contempt held by the American people.

Most of what Congress is constitutionally authorized to spend for is listed in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and includes: coining money, establish Post Offices, to support Armies and a few other activities. Today's federal budget is over $3 trillion dollars. I challenge anyone to find specific constitutional authority for at least $2 trillion of it. That includes Social Security, Medicare, farm and business handouts, education, prescription drugs and a host of other federal expenditures. Americans who have become accustomed to living at the expense of another American would not want Congress to obey the Constitution, especially if it left out their favorite handout.

A harebrained politician or lawyer might tell us that the Constitution's general welfare clause authorizes those expenditures. Here's what James Madison, the acknowledged father of the Constitution, said: "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."

Later, Madison added, "If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions."

Thomas Jefferson explained, "Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated."

At one time there were presidents who respected the Constitution. Grover Cleveland vetoed hundreds of spending measures during his two-term presidency, often saying, "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution." Then there was Franklin Pierce who said, after vetoing an appropriation to assist the mentally ill, "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity," adding, "To approve such spending would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded."

We should consider ending the charade and get rid of our 200-year-plus presidential oath of office and replace it with: I accept the office of president.
Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well.

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

If ever there was a misapplied oath taker, it is George W. Bush. He has done more anti-constitutional things in his presidency than any that came before, except during the civil war. To sit back and cast aspersions on the three candidates without aknowledging Bush is fucking crazy. Another W.E. Williams Hitjob, Thanks Vi, NOT!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Its no "hit job." Yes, GW acts from an unconstitutional position ... AS DO ALMOST ALL FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND POLITICIANS. So what?

You've correctly identified Lincoln's rape of the Constitution. How unconstitutional was FDR's New Deal, or LBJ's Great Society programs, Med?

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

The only candidate still in the game that has vowed (and proven) to uphold the most sacred of documents that defines us and this great nation is Ron Paul. The rest of them, I'd prefer to feed them lead than vote for them.

I'm an admirer of a number of right-wing thinkers, with Scalia, Friedman, Mises and Hayek being among those. With that said, Williams is an intellectual retard compared to them. There's a reason why this guy teaches at a commuter college. I can't even fathom why he'd include a quote from TJ, who was the orchestrator of the Louisiana Purchase. Why quote a man who openly violated it as well, if we take Scalia's original intent position? And like Smith, TJ believed that we our sole focus should be on agriculture. Thank god that Hamilton prevailed. TJ may be the most overhyped individual of all time.

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It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. Einstein

Hey Vi, what do you think of HBOs John Adams mini-series. If you missed it, it will be on Sunday with all 6-7 episodes in series starting at 2PM, I don't know how accurate it was but it was entertaining. I learned a bit. BTW, the new deal pulled us out of a depression, argue away, but facts is facts.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Thanks for the heads up, Med. I missed the series ... but I will set my Tivo for Sunday.

Contrary to your public/government education views of the Great Depression and FDR ... There were more unemployed at the beginning of FDR's third term in office than there were at the start of his first term. All of his programs, many of which were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, actually prolonged the depression. We were brought out of the depression through WWII.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

So, I must assume you went to a private school then. Sorry my friend, my parents had all they could do to roof, clothe and feed us. I was a victim of Nevada public schools, Rated best in the nation in my days. Now with the insane influx of everyone from illegals to those that can't make it anywhere else, we are ranked way down on the list, near or at the bottom.
My grandaughters are going to a barrio school, the neighborhood is now a barrio. The first gang grafitti showed up on a neighbors block wall this winter, so it's just a matter of time before the gunfire starts. When I bought this house 20 years ago, it was one of the better neighborhoods in Vegas, the demographics have sure changed, especially in the last 5 years.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

Nope, I didn't attend private schools ... and we ate out of our Victory Garden. I know you're way to young to remember Victory Gardens, Med ... but the majority of homes had them during WWII. I've killed my share of chickens and rabbits for dinner too.

Although I attended government schools, and absorbed the same revisionist history you did, I took the time to study on my own. To say that "FDR got us out of the depression," is nothing more than chanting falsehoods foisted upon us by those government school marms.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

I'll try and look for the link I found last year sometime that clearly defined this Administration as being responsible for the largest expansion of Executive Power in the history of the US.