Not Yours To Give

www.townhall.com ^ | 02/09/2005 | Walter E Williams

[libertarianben]

Charity to man's fellow man is praiseworthy, and Americans are the most generous people on Earth.

[libertarianben]

I search for this and no one posted it, so I decided to. What do you think of it? People love to spend other's peoples money.

[backhoe]

My tagline is a true-from-life quote...

[MHGinTN]

I canb hear Walter's voice when I read his missives ... excellent stand-in for Rush, occasionally.

[185JHP]

Williams brings a package: intelligence, honesty, sense of humor.

[tahiti]

"Today's politicians can't be held fully responsible for our abandonment of constitutional government. While they can be blamed for not being statesmen, the lion's share of the blame rests with 280 million Americans. Elected officials simply mirror public misunderstanding or contempt for constitutional principles."

Prof. Williams you nailed it again.

[k2blader]

Unlike President Bush, a few of our former presidents understood that charity is not a government function. Franklin Pierce, our 14th president, vetoed a bill to help the mentally ill, saying, "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity," adding that 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."

In 1887, President Grover Cleveland, our 22nd and 24th president, said, when he vetoed a bill to assist drought-inflicted counties in Texas, "I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds. ... I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution."

Imagine that--Presidents who actually considered the Constitution!!!

P.S. Thank you, Walter Williams. :-)

[MHGinTN]

He's great on air, quipping about his wife and all, but when he gets home ...

Reminds me of the story of the two little brothers who fought all day ...

[185JHP]

(;<)

[libertarianben]

Why doesn't Rush make him the #1 guest host when he's away? It's nice to hear a libertarian voice on the radio. Not always kissing Bush's backside but going after both parties when they violate constitutional principals.

[185JHP]

I don't always agree with Williams - but I like his consistency and honesty. He doesn't swap his integrity for an invitation to Davos.

[mrsmith]

"I'd like to ask President Bush and members of the 109th Congress whether they've discovered the constitutional authority for charitable expenditures undiscovered by James Madison,"

Perhaps Mr. Williams is unaware that President Madison signed the first US foreign aid bill. It was for the relief of Venezuelans hit by an earthquake at Caracas.

Or, more likely, he is unaware that foreign aid is not charity- it's really a bribe. Money, bullets: they're all the same in foreign affairs.

More interestingly President Madison also signed the first domestic disaster relief bill!
It was for the sufferers of the New Madrid earthquake (the worst to ever hit the US). It gave US government land to those whose land had been subsumed in the earthquake.

Mr Williams point that charity is not the business of the government is good, of course, but the evidence is that James Madison did find "the constitutional authority for charitable expenditures ".

[Sir Gawain]

bttt for Katrina "relief"