freedom...

How Is Our Constitution Under Fire?

Today, the federal government has acquired an all but unquestioned dominance over virtually every area of American life. It acts without constitutional limits and increasingly regulates our most basic activities, from how much water is in our toilets to what kind of light bulbs we can buy.
So while we face many challenges, the most difficult task ahead—and the most important—is to restore constitutional limits on government. Forty visionaries signed a piece of paper 225 years ago today that became one of the most vital documents in the world: the U.S. Constitution.
By design, it limited the power of government under the rule of law, created a vigorous framework that expanded economic opportunity, protected national independence and secured liberty and justice for all. But how is that limitation of powers working today?
The Judicial Branch. The rise of unlimited government is most familiar and most prominent in the form of judicial activism. The Founders called the judiciary the “least dangerous branch,” but progressive judges have usurped the functions of the other two branches and transformed the courts into policymaking bodies with wide-ranging power. We need judges who take the Constitution seriously and follow it faithfully.
The Legislative Branch. For its part, Congress has long legislated without regard to limits on its powers. As a result, decisions that were previously the constitutional responsibility of elected legislators are delegated to executive branch administrators. Congress is increasingly an administrative body overseeing a vast array of bureaucratic policymakers and rule-making bodies. Congress should stop delegating to bureaucrats and actively take responsibility for all the laws (and regulations) that govern us.
The Executive Branch. Meanwhile, the President has unique and powerful responsibilities in our constitutional system as chief executive officer, head of state, and commander in chief. But the idea that the president— who is charged with the execution of the laws—doesn’t have to wait for the lawmaking branch to make, amend, or abolish laws, but can and should act on his own is toxic to the rule of law. It violates the spirit, and potentially the letter, of the Constitution’s separation of the legislative and executive powers of Congress and the President.
It won’t be easy to return to the founding principles. We’ll have to move one step at a time, and walk back decades worth of bad decisions by members of all three branches of government. But it can be done, if we use the written Constitution as our guide and we believe that it means what it says and says what it means.
The Founders worked from the premise that government exists to secure God-given rights, and that it derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. And while many people take that for granted today, it was a novel idea in the 18th century and remains all too rare today.
Since Americans are equal, self-governing citizens and the United States government is limited, we have the liberty and opportunity to live our lives, control our fate, and pursue our happiness—and the American Dream.
That’s worth celebrating, today and every day.
But while our Constitution remains remarkably hale and hearty after all these years (it’s by far the longest-serving constitution in the world), it is under fire from many directions.
Let us remember today that we have the opportunity to rededicate this country to the Constitution and to the universal principles of liberty at its core. We can, and must, dedicate ourselves to the hard work of restoring constitutional self-government, and so preserving the American Dream for all.
http://askheritage.org/how-is-our-constitution-under-fire?utm_source=AH_Weekly&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=2012-09-21&utm_campaign=2012_Brand

Continued erosion

Supreme Court Upholds Mandate as Tax
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304898704577480371370927862.html?mod=WSJ_Home_largeHeadline

The slippery slide continues...our freedom and liberty continue to be eroded away, our federal government continues to grow in power and control - the founder's checks and balances fading into history...states' rights continuing to be trampled upon!

The Federal Government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance. Section 5000A would therefore be unconstitutional if read as a command. The Federal Government does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance. Section 5000A is therefore constitutional, because it can reasonably be read as a tax.-- Chief Justice John Roberts

Whether federal spending legislation crosses the line from enticement to coercion is often difficult to determine, and courts should not conclude that legislation is unconstitutional on this ground unless the coercive nature of an offer is unmistakably clear. In this case, however, there can be no doubt.-- Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito

some comments to ponder upon

Numbed minds = numbed people; ignorance is no longer bliss!

Entitlement minded = I am entitled and it’s my right = everyone’s freedoms are diminished!

How valuable has our freedom and liberty become when we allow our ‘central’ government to become our ‘entitlor’?

We live in an era of the continual layering upon layering of governmental edicts being proclaimed and foisted upon the citizenry (whether by executive order, legislation or judicial decision) that affect the average American’s daily life in many intrusive, inefficient and costly ways and yet the same governmental careerists that are proclaiming these edicts are consistently ‘excluded’ from their reach…the hierarchy of our leadership has truly moved to a ‘do as I say and not as I do’ governmental regime!

truly amazing times...

We have a government that creates the problems by its regulatory vigor, doesn't bother to count the cost of their actions on the future, and then blames everyone else but themselves for the mess that we end up with!
What kind of government leads its people in that fashion? Not a very effective one - and now we are seeing more of the bad fruit of their continuing actions.

Taken from "The Market Today Online" -
The treatment of Bank of America by politicians for its decision to raise fees on its deposit accounts has been remarkable. The President lashed into the bank Monday saying, “you don’t have some inherent right just to, you know, get a certain amount of profit – if your customers are being mistreated – that you have to treat them fairly and transparently.” He added that “This is exactly why we need this Consumer Finance Protection Bureau…somebody who’s sole job it is to prevent this kind of stuff from happening.” This was an alarming statement for the President to say that it is inappropriate for a private business to set its own fee schedule based on its costs – and that the CFPB would police that.
Senator Durbin followed suit by calling for a run on the bank from the Senate floor, telling Bank of America customers they should “get the heck out of that bank.” Representative Brad Miller introduced legislation that says banks cannot charge fees to customers who close accounts, implying that he is protecting the tide of people who will want to leave the bank. In a statement, he offered his understanding of economic theory saying that “That is the way things work in a competitive, free market as unrepentant banks are still trying to rake in vulgar profits.” Bank of America’s website has been down for two days. It would not be a surprise if there were a run taking place on the bank, although the bank denies that.
Politicians undermining confidence in a corporation for political purposes would certainly not be an example of a free market.

Cost of Government Day

Every year, Americans for Tax Reform Foundation publishes its Cost of Government Day report, which calculates the day on the calendar year until which the average American must work to pay for the full costs of government spending and regulation. Highlights of the report are as follows:

- This year, Cost of Government Day fell on August 12, meaning Americans labored a full 224 days into the year to pay for local, state and federal government spending and regulations.

- Americans have lost 29 days of the calendar year thanks to Obama's overspending and regulatory zeal -- 2011 marks the third straight year Cost of Government Day has fallen in August. Prior to the Obama administration, it had never fallen later than July 21.

- The effects of the bailouts and failed stimulus plan are still being felt by Americans, who must work a full 103 days to pay for the costs of federal spending.

- Americans spend 44 days working to pay off state and local government spending.

- Americans are forced to labor 77 days to pay for total federal regulations, a workload that will increase exponentially with the implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory bill and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The report also measures varying government burdens in each state to calculate their respective state Cost of Government Day. As in past years, taxpayers in Connecticut must work the latest, laboring all the way until September 10 to pay off the full costs of government. Taxpayers in Mississippi worked the shortest amount of time to pay off their burden off government, laboring until July 19.

Source: "2011 Cost of Government Day: August 12," Americans for Tax Reform, August 12, 2011.

For text:
http://www.atr.org/cost-government-august-a6400

For study:
http://www.costofgovernmentday.com/