We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, (sic) promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Preamble to the Constitution
September 17 was the 236th anniversary of the signing of the constitution. President Biden did make a national address about the anniversary, nor did he issue a proclamation about the “supreme law of the land” commemorating the foundations of our constitutional republic.
Instead, it was business as usual for Biden who left the White House on Sunday to fly to New York for a political event on Monday and then to attend meetings at the UN on Tuesday.
The Constitution lays out the structure of the American government, the powers of the president, the authorized spending of the federal government, and identifies the rights of the people. In short, the federal government does not grant the people rights, but acknowledges that these rights are inherent in a free people. And what is not explicitly authorized as a responsibility of the federal government is left to the states or the people.
As Judge Napolitano pointed out, “The 10th Amendment reflects the ratifiers’ public understanding that the Constitution is a compact, voluntarily entered into by sovereign states; and when they entered, they only surrendered to the federal government those powers enumerated in the Constitution, and thus they retained the powers not surrendered.”
Nevertheless, the Constitution is a flawed document, and has failed to protect the people from the “depredations of government,” as the Declaration of Independence proclaimed,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
In other words, the American people are no longer living under a federal government that protects their rights, just as the King George violated the colonists’ rights more than 240 years ago.
This brings me to an obvious observation, namely, all presidents, cabinet members, members of Congress, federal judges, and Supreme Court Justices have violated their oaths to defend and uphold the Constitution.
With the Congress passing budgets signed by the president calling for spending that is not authorized by Article I, Section 8, it is clear members of Congress and the chief executive are not faithful to their oaths of office.
In an era when the Constitution was respected such as the time the Supreme Court ruled the 1894 tariff bill containing a provision for an income tax was unconstitutional, the pro income tax forces worked to amend the constitution and the 16th amendment was added authorizing a federal income tax.
When the Prohibitionists wanted to ban the manufacture and sale of alcohol, there was no constitutional authority to do so and thus the 18th amendment was added to the Constitution giving the federal government that authority.
Since the New Deal the Supreme Court has allowed Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other social welfare spending to be enacted by the Congress despite the Constitution not giving the federal government authority to create these programs. And let’s not forget the Congress did not pass any declaration of war for all wars since the end of World War.
Do the people have the right to “fix” the unconstitutional use of their tax money to withhold their income from the depredations of the federal government? In other words, do the people have the right to “alter” our welfare-warfare state in keeping with the spirit of the Declaration and the legal principles of the Constitution? To ask the question is to answer it.
This begs the question, how?
We have had an ongoing constitutional crisis for more than two centuries. Voting for either a Democrat or Republican will not abolish the welfare-warfare state which both major parties support and thus will continue to ignore Art. I, Sec. 8.
In the final analysis, the people are responsible for the welfare-warfare state, because not enough Americans objected to the federal government creating one and have not demanded their “representatives” defend the Constitution, as flawed as it is.
The bottom line: we have met the enemy, and it is us.
My latest piece on the economy was published in Fortune, https://fortune.com/2023/03/27/ -2023-layoffs-tech-finance-unemployment-outlook-fed-rates-murray-sabrin/ This is an update of my 2021 forecast, https://fortune.com/2021/12/09/next-recession-heres-everything-bubble-markets-2021-2022-covid-murray-sabrin/
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Murray Sabrin, PhD, is emeritus professor of finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Sabrin is considered a “public intellectual” for writing about the economy in scholarly and popular publications. His new book, The Finance of Health Care: Wellness and Innovative Approaches to Employee Medical Insurance (Business Expert Press, Oct. 24, 2022), and his other BEP publication, Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide (October 2021), provides decision makers with tools needed to help manage their businesses during the business cycle. Sabrin's autobiography, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story, was published in November, 2022.