Daniel L. Gardner
Guest Columnist
America is approaching a stand off between people who believe in Constitutional government and those who believe Washington holds sovereign power. Hopefully, this stand off will be adjudicated through elections. More hopefully, those elected will lead us back into Constitutional governance.
CNN polling shows 86 percent of Americans believe “Government is broken.” President Obama’s approval numbers are diving into the 40s, and only Congress is seeing any improvement – moving from single digit approval ratings up into the teens. These and other similar polls are hardly partisan.
History teaches those who listen: centralized authoritarian government is the problem.
Our Founding Fathers knew this, and sculpted the Constitution to give minimum power to the federal government, moderate power to the states, and the majority of governing authority to the people. The last 110 years of progressive politics have turned this governing formula on its head.
Consider the ninth and tenth amendments:
“Amendment IX. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
“Amendment X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Notice these amendments limit federal powers to those enumerated in the Constitution while allocating all other powers to the States or to the people.
Progressives believe federal government has power over all things. Conservatives believe federal government has grown well beyond limits set by the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson said, “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. “
Out of all the problems America faces today, the annual deficit ($1 Trillion/year) and the national debt ($13 Trillion) are the biggest threats to individual liberties and our national sovereignty.
What is Washington’s response? Spend more money on healthcare reform, environment, and education; regulate more of our ‘free market’ businesses and industries, and keep raising taxes to pay for all these benefits.
Jefferson also said, “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” Americans are not happy with Washington today.
Does anyone believe Washington spends money wisely, efficiently, or effectively? What if all federal programs and bureaucracies not specifically listed in the Constitution were shut down?
Looking only at the E’s, we could save hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Shut down the Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Department of Energy.
Education could be more effectively and efficiently administered if all dollars going to education (federal, state, local) were invested in efforts overseen by local teachers, parents and administrators.
EPA has cost taxpayers hundreds-of-billions of dollars, not to mention has impeded business and industry’s profitability.
How many hundreds-of-billions of taxpayer dollars have we wasted through the Department of Energy, and for what? Don’t we still have an energy crisis?
Washington has indebted all foreseeable generations of Americans to unpayable liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone. No one in Washington has the wherewithal or backbone to reel in these liabilities.
Failure to stop deficit spending will lead us into a totalitarian Marxist state or anarchy. Washington must return to Constitutional government.
Daniel L. Gardner is a syndicated columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com
His column does not reflect the views of Starkville-Now.com
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Is this column what is called trolling?
Interestingly, he only pulls from the Constitutional Amendments (of which he uses IX and X of the Bill of Rights) but claims all the founding fathers. He neglects the Hamiltonian and Madisonian view of government which makes up the powers reflected within the Constitution itself.
Excellent article, I believe he is telling us to wake up America, or we’ll spend ourselves to death. Or maybe we already have….
But doing so by eliminating these federal agencies costs him a little in terms of credibility in my opinion. Taking the extreme view of things can also be what got us here.
I have to admit that I admire Mr. Gardner’s passion in expressing his concern over the excessive spending and otherwise ever-expansive, overly-bureaucratic nature of our federal government. We’re all hurting here, and surely that deserves recognition.
However, the suggestion to eliminate the Department of Education is a dangerous suggestion. We are in a time of desperation for additional budget-friendly resources and reorganization at all levels of public education (local, state, and federal). In my own small opinion, it will take creativity and an ability to compromise amidst a very turbulent power struggle at even the state level. Those interested should perhaps view the organization chart for MDE. An example of wasteful spending to pay multiple employees as bureau directors of each division of each bureau. A community effort spearheading accountability on the local level to attempt to reach a common goal of student achievement is perhaps necessary now more than ever, as our resources are being drained from federal to state to local levels of education. Our schools are our very resources for building a future workforce that can help us emerge from this recession and these uncertain times in Mississippi.
Also, by saying that we will emerge in a society that is totalitarian Marxist (a contradiction in and of itself) or anarchist is like saying we will either be a very compliant society or a very rebellious society. They are two separate and very different types of regimes, and the latter relies on the concept of public dissent and apathy. Neither are possible in a democracy like the American democracy, and the point proves nothing as it contradicts itself. Let’s have more faith than this in our nation.