Posted on 06/30/2009 10:20:49 AM PDT by DGHoodini
It's been a while since I've read our foundational documents, so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but isn't it specifically spelled out that the Govt is *forbidden* from competing with public and private businesses?
It says Congress can regulate interestate commerce but not intrastate.. other than that nothing springs to mind
then again, 90% of legislation since the New Deal has been unconstitutional
If government has to openly compete with private enterprise, private enterprise will always win. Forbidden or not.
Now the problem is “regulation” of industry and Government determining the outcome of who wins and loses.
That is the real question.
It is about Freedom or Slavery in it’s simplest form.
If so wouldn’t UPS and FedEx have sued the Post Office?
Wakenhut/Pinkerton have sued the FBI/DEA/State and Local Police? And Blackwater have sued the Department of Defense?
Maybe those entities NEED to be sued anyway.
The mail is specifically allowed for in the Constitution.
Thank you for the answers, but I’m *sure* if not from what document, that I read that it was forbidden, for the sake of the point of Texas Fossil’s reply. If anyone knows from where I came to read that, I would appreciate the reference.
USPS existed long before those entities, and has allways been considered a function of Govt.
I think the USPS is the only one allowed to carry first class mail, and UPS or FedEx couldn't if they wanted to. It's probably just as well, though, since there's probably not a lot of margin there anyway, if any.
Well there is also always the 9th and 10th Amendments which are supposed to ensure that anything not specifically enumarated in the constitution are left to the states or the people themselves
the mail is in the constitution as is laws for bankruptcy, treaties, etc. but I think it is safe to say that the founders did not expect the federal government to become so large and powerful (even those who advocated a larger government like Hamilton) and socialism was a non-existent idea (didn’t come around, I think, until the 1830’s)
Depends upon who is sitting on the supreme court
The post office is specifically provided for as a power of Congress.
In other areas Congress has no delegated power to compete, or even operate, against private business.
There is no specifically delegate power for the government to compete with or be in business, and thus no need for a specific prohibition. But they put one in there any way, it's called the 10th amendment.
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.
For reference here are the delegated powers of Congress, and thus the federal government.:
Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; — And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
There are few other powers scattered about the Constitution, but none that give the government the power to build vehicles for the private market (they could build them for their own use), or operate banks. Most of the Constitution as originally written, concerns internal structural matters of the government itself. Only the Article I section 8 powers indicated above are "external". Later amendments concern themselves with rights and privileges, as well as internal matters, except for the 18th amendment, which was passed in 1919 and repealed in 1933 by the 21st amendment, and section 2 of the 21st, which prohibits importation of liquor into states where it is illegal. (Interesting that they felt the need to specifically include that, rather than just do it under the interstate commerce clause, as they now feel they can do)
Because there is a specific power granted to Congress "To establish Post Offices and post Roads", in article I section 8.
As well as Constitutional provisions for the defense of the nation: DoD,FBI, Police etc..
The Government may only perform the items enumerated within the Constitution.
This whole idea has been thrown out many decades ago and we have let the Government take control.
The founders wrote the Constitution's grammar in a fashion that listed "powers granted". The founders did not write in a fashion that listed "powers forbidden".
The founders ratified the creation of a Constitution to establish a central government with only limited powers. Reading Article 1, Section 1, reveals the method the founder's selected to limit the government’s powers.
Article 1, Section 1, is clear when it said All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Without going into a lengthy explanation what this means is that if the Constitution does not list a specific “herein granted power” to government then the power does not exist.
Some like to read the Constitution and say that the government has the power to do something because the Constitution doesn’t say they can’t. In actuality, just the opposite is correct. If the Constitution doesn’t specifically say they can that means, they can’t.
The “Bill of Rights” did add prohibitions to the government’s powers. On examination, those prohibitions were not necessary because the Constitution had not granted the power to the government.
In summary, the government is “forbidden” from competing with public and private businesses because they do not have the “Powers herein granted”.
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