Trampled Underfoot

"Here's to the men who did what was considered wrong, to do what they knew was right...what they knew was right."
--Benjamin Franklin Gates (National Treasure)

Sage economist Walt Williams discusses the expansion of government beyond its intended role as per the Constitution.

Professor Williams provides some nice quotes from Presidents Madison, Cleveland, and Pierce who vetoed spending bills because they were not within the scope of the Constitution.

He also discusses the 'General Welfare' clause--the oft used 'loophole' evoked by bureaucrats over the past 100 yrs to expand government beyond Constitutional boundaries. He provides some fantastic quotes from Founders who wanted to put this clause in its proper place:

Madison: "If Congress can do whatever in their general discretion can be done with 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 exemptions."

Madison II: "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."

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

Over the past century, we have thrown these intentions out the window.

I'm confident that, if the Founders were able to hold a press conference right now, they'd opine that the greatest challenge facing the United States is marshalling to the fortitude to reverse course back toward the country's original design of limited government and liberty.