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What do we mean when we say small government, ie, constitutionally limited government?
Jim Robinson

Posted on 05/03/2012 3:05:31 PM PDT by Jim Robinson

Some of the areas/functions the federal government should not be involved in per the constitution (see enumerated powers of congress and the Bill of Rights, the 9th and 10th amendments, etc):

  1. Health
  2. Education
  3. Welfare
  4. Housing
  5. Mortgages
  6. Student loans
  7. Subsidies
  8. Health insurance
  9. Retirement insurance
  10. Mandating insurance contracts of any kind
  11. Trade unions
  12. Government workers unions (huge conflict of interest)
  13. Jobs (other than not creating an environment that kills them)
  14. Banking/finance
  15. Free markets
  16. The stock market
  17. The economy (other than not overstepping its constitutional bounds and creating havoc)
  18. The working environment
  19. Global warming
  20. Crime in general (other than treason, piracy, counterfeiting, etc)
  21. Marriage (gay or otherwise)
  22. Abortion (other protecting than the constitutional right to life)
  23. Infanticide (ditto)
  24. Euthanasia (ditto)
  25. Judicial activism
  26. Leveling the playing field for minorities
  27. Ditto for immigrants (legal or otherwise)
  28. Ditto for women
  29. Ditto for hispanics
  30. Ditto for gays
  31. Ditto for students
  32. Ditto for seniors
  33. Ditto for the poor
  34. Ditto for the middle class
  35. Ditto for singling out the wealthy for special punishment
  36. Ditto for any other class or special interest group (see equality under the law)
  37. Using the news media as propaganda organ
  38. Using the entertainment industry as propaganda organ
  39. Using educational institutions as socialist indoctrination centers
  40. Conducting war on talk radio
  41. Suppressing freedom of speech
  42. Oppressing freedom of religion
  43. Suppressing inter-state commerce (the commerce clause was intended to keep commerce flowing between the states with no restrictions or tariffs)
  44. Conducting war on coal, oil, gas, energy
  45. Conducting war on farming, fishing, mining, timber, manufacturing, industry
  46. Conducting war on religious freedom
  47. Conducting war on right to freely exercise religion
  48. Conducting war on Christianity
  49. Conducting war on right to keep and bear arms
  50. Conducting war on state powers
  51. Conducting war on liberty itself
  52. etc, etc, etc.

It's a never ending list and rapidly expanding as fast as our now virtually UNLIMITED unconstitutional BIG government is rapidly expanding, regardless of party in power.

Think about the thousands of areas where our federal government has granted itself powers to control and regulate, then compare them to the very short list of enumerated powers:

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.

See also:

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: elections; nobama; noromney; smallgov; smallgovernment; studentloans
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1 posted on 05/03/2012 3:05:36 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
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To: Jim Robinson

I just want to be left alone to make my own way in life without every cent sucked out of me.

Its a scary thing to be middle aged and getting poorer by the second and have no family to rely on as I get older. Its even scarier to know that neither political party has any intent of releasing us from the prison they’ve built.

I’m finished with listening to promises of the great GOP saving me in 4 more years.


2 posted on 05/03/2012 3:12:12 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: Jim Robinson

That might mean freeloaders don’t get free stuff.


3 posted on 05/03/2012 3:16:51 PM PDT by Libloather (The epitome of civility.)
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To: Jim Robinson

I’m still wondering where my chicks are at.


4 posted on 05/03/2012 3:16:51 PM PDT by humblegunner
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To: Jim Robinson
It's a never ending list and rapidly expanding as fast as our now virtually UNLIMITED unconstitutional BIG government is rapidly expanding, regardless of party in power

A Large Government and a Free People cannot peacefully Coexist.

Much like Big Government Republicans and The Tea Party cannot Peacefully coexist within the same party, one MUST be forced out.

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”

-- John Quincy Adams

5 posted on 05/03/2012 3:18:13 PM PDT by KC_Lion (A Romney victory means that the socialistsÂ’ takeover of both parties is now complete)
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To: cripplecreek
I’m finished with listening to promises of the great GOP saving me in 4 more years.

Millard Filmore 1852! So we can keep Comprising with the Democrats while achieving little in return!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Millard_Fillmore2.jpg

P.S. That is going to be my new Tagline.

6 posted on 05/03/2012 3:22:08 PM PDT by KC_Lion (IÂ’m finished with listening to empty promises of the great GOP saving me in 4 more years.)
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To: Jim Robinson
Article 1, Section 8 enumerates those items for which the federal government may tax, spend and oversee. It is my view that the vast majority of what our federal government does is unconstitutional...

I, personally may have been happier to retain the Articles of Confederation, but it, too, had inherent flaws...a malady common to all human governance.

We use General Welfare, the Commerce clause and Stare Decisis to reach the inevitable decline that all republics must suffer.

per James Madison:

"With respect to the two words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. If the words obtained so readily a place in the "Articles of Confederation," and received so little notice in their admission into the present Constitution, and retained for so long a time a silent place in both, the fairest explanation is, that the words, in the alternative of meaning nothing or meaning everything, had the former meaning taken for granted."

7 posted on 05/03/2012 3:26:44 PM PDT by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: Jim Robinson
Per my reply on another thread...:
1) DC illegally takes most of the state's money and then bribes or buys them into submission. States need to reestablish direct taxes as theirs alone. DC must apportion tax money raised by states via direct or other taxes per USC.

2) States no longer have a seat in congress: the House is people and Senate is states. Similar to English parliament: Lords(states) Common(people). This problem is related to #1, also.

3) Interstate Commerce and General Welfare did not provide a magic way out of enumerated powers; not lawful. To change USC fundamentally requires a USC amendment. USC is USG contract w/ states/people and it may be changed this way, only.

4) Fiat currency is tied to the Corporate Excise Tax of 1909, which unlawfully because individualized. USG has the power to _coin_ money, specie, all the Fathers knew exactly what this meant. USC means what it meant when it was created. Not what it means after wicked people change the meanings of words to bend USC to their illegal purposes.

5) Judges are not allowed to legislate from the bench, laws are created by the legislature and judged by courts: judges and the people in the jury!

8 posted on 05/03/2012 3:29:17 PM PDT by veracious
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To: cripplecreek

Dude, preach it! I’m working for down ticket TEA Party candidates wherever I can support them. I tied myself in knots defending some of the “compassionate conservative” pieces of President Bush; I supported mccain when Sarah came on the ticket. I “came into politics” during Dole. NOW I have this Romeny idiot as my only choice? Screw that. No longer anything GOP here, I’m just a Constitutional Conservative and to all those out there that try and lay that bullshit line on me “not voting for Romney is a vote for Obama”; piss off, party hack.


9 posted on 05/03/2012 3:31:11 PM PDT by Michael Barnes (Obamaa+ Downgrade)
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To: Jim Robinson
Marriage can be covered under the clause of fixing values of weights and measures as it is generally accepted that standardized legal definitions are an accepted form of measure. Preserving the legal definitions within contracts assures equal legal protection for all individuals across varying jurisdictions. Federalist 42 expands on the weights and measures clause to describe it as:..to prescribe the manner in which the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of each State shall be proved..

In other words, congress can and should preserve the legal definition of marriage in the same way they are charged with insuring that all legal standards are clearly defined and uniform.

10 posted on 05/03/2012 3:31:52 PM PDT by mnehring
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To: KC_Lion; Carry_Okie; calcowgirl; NormsRevenge; Grampa Dave; tubebender; BOBTHENAILER; ...
"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”

-- John Quincy Adams

I absolutely cherish that quote! Absolutely!!!

I'm BOOKMARKING this thread. Thank you JR, for making it so thoughtful!!!

11 posted on 05/03/2012 3:33:48 PM PDT by SierraWasp (Negativity must die because it's self-fulfilling!!!)
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To: Jim Robinson
Personally, when I say 'small government', I mean government staffed entirely by midgets.

Preferably, midgets in clown outfits.

12 posted on 05/03/2012 3:35:07 PM PDT by Lazamataz (To the wall, street occupiers!!!!!)
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To: mnehring

Ok, thanks!


13 posted on 05/03/2012 3:38:55 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Rebellion is on!!)
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To: Jim Robinson
An FR post from 2009:

Common Defense & General Welfare. The Meaning is Clear

14 posted on 05/03/2012 3:39:37 PM PDT by Jacquerie (No court will save us from ourselves.)
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To: mnehring

And I thought weights and measures applied to the bathroom scales, which may regulate marriage to some degree.


15 posted on 05/03/2012 3:42:28 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Rebellion is on!!)
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To: Lazamataz

We here at The Lollipop Guild are in total support (although we’re hearing rumblings from the dwarves and pygmies who feel they are under-represented)


16 posted on 05/03/2012 3:44:14 PM PDT by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: Michael Barnes
I tied myself in knots defending some of the “compassionate conservative” pieces of President Bush; I supported mccain when Sarah came on the ticket. I “came into politics” during Dole. NOW I have this Romeny idiot as my only choice? Screw that. No longer anything GOP here, I’m just a Constitutional Conservative and to all those out there that try and lay that bullshit line on me “not voting for Romney is a vote for Obama”; piss off, party hack.

I'm with you all the way. I can accept some seriously flawed candidates as long as they're willing to unlock the gates of this fiscal prison.

There's just such incredible fiscal stupidity out there that I no longer recognize my nation or most of the people living in it. Nobody can go without anything any more. Jackson Michigan just announced that they "need" 6 figures to repave a freakin bike path. I just want to pound my head on the wall some days.
17 posted on 05/03/2012 3:46:16 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: Jim Robinson

LOL, I’m not going there.


18 posted on 05/03/2012 3:46:31 PM PDT by mnehring
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To: Jacquerie

Thank you very much. Great thread!


19 posted on 05/03/2012 3:47:09 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Rebellion is on!!)
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To: cripplecreek

You cant even take a dump or turn on a “light bulb” without Government interference.

IM SURE THATS HOW THE FOUNDING FATHERS WANTED IT.


20 posted on 05/03/2012 3:50:37 PM PDT by Delta 21 (Oh Crap !! Did I say that out loud ??!??)
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