My tagline is a true-from-life quote...
I canb hear Walter's voice when I read his missives ... excellent stand-in for Rush, occasionally.
Prof. Williams you nailed it again.
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."Imagine that--Presidents who actually considered the Constitution!!!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."
P.S. Thank you, Walter Williams. :-)
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 ".
bttt for Katrina "relief"