The Government Agency Constitutionality Test (GACT)

I was recently reminded of The Enumerated Powers Act (H.R. 450, S. 1319), introduced by Representative John Shadegg (R-AZ) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) in 2009. The Act would require all congressional legislation to contain an explanation of the constitutional authority by which Congress can enact it.

This got me thinking: if I was elected President, one of the first things I would do is require every single federal government agency to submit a report justifying its existence. The only source they can use for such justification is the United States Constitution.

If they can do so, they remain with a budget equal to that in 2006. If they cannot do so, the agency is abolished with its duties discontinued immediately or transferred to a constitutional agency.

What are these enumerated powers? Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution grants to Congress the powers to: 

• To pay the debts of the United States.
• To declare war and make rules of warfare, to raise and support armies and a navy and to make rules governing the military forces . . .
• To regulate commerce with foreign Nations, and among the States . . .
• To establish uniform Rules of Naturalization
• To establish uniform Laws on Bankruptcies;
• To coin money and regulate the value thereof;
• To fix the standard of Weights and Measures;
• To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting;
• To establish post offices and post roads;
• To issue patents and copyrights;
• To create courts inferior to the supreme court; and 
• To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the Laws of Nations. 

• The 16th Amendment established the income tax.

As important as the enumerated powers is the 10th Amendment is even more important. It states: 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.

Given all of that, how many agencies would pass The Government Agency Constitutionality Test?

1. The Defense Department – provide for our common defense, forts, arsenals, army, navy, etc.
2. The Post Office (unfortunately)
3. The State Department
4. The Treasury Department – Monetary system - coin money based on gold and silver, weights & measures
5. The Patent and Trademark Office
6. The IRS - To enforce the 16th Amendment and other taxes passed by Congress.
7. The federal court system.
8. The Attorney General’s Office – To enforce civil rights & voting rights (forget about Eric Holder’s refusal to prosecute the Philadelphia Black Panthers).
9. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
10. The Justice Department 

That will probably mean the abolishment or privatization of well know agencies such as:

1. The Department of Education
2. The Department of the Interior
3. The Department of Homeland Security
4. The Department of Health and Human Services
5. The Department of Labor
6. The Department of Housing and Urban Development
7. The Department of Energy
8. The Commerce Department
9. The Department of Transportation
10. Amtrak
11. The Food and Drug Administration
12. The Labor Relations Administration
13. Fannie Mae
14. Freddie Mac
15. The Bureau of Land Management
16. The National Endowment for the Arts
17. The National Endowment for the Humanities
18. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

For a look at the embarrassingly long list of government agencies check here: http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml.

I believe by taking this action, we will not only tackle our record national debt and deficit problem but also alleviate much of the problems associated with the federal government’s abuse of the Commerce and General Welfare clauses.

For those of you who wish to dive deeper into this subject, below is some additional background from The Federalist Papers:

Federalist No. 45 - James Madison - The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.

Federalist No. 39: ...the proposed government cannot be deemed a national one; since its jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects only, and leaves to the several States a residuary and inviolable sovereignity over all other objects.

Federalist No. 14: . . the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects…

The American Dream is not a Promise

The shallowness of the far Left and progressives in this country continues to amaze me.

Case in point: There was a caller on the October 3rd Jason Lewis Show who defended the “Occupy Wall Street” protest.

Below is a synopsis of his argument followed by my rebuttal:

#1 – “There are a bunch of us out here that have Master’s Degrees and we can’t get good jobs.”

#2 – “We spent an exorbitant amount of money for our education and come out of school with $60,000 in student loan debt with no job prospects.” 

#3 – “We did not get the American Dream we were promised.”

This is idiocy personified:

#1 – Why are you protesting Wall Street? Shouldn’t you be protesting the Obama Administration’s abysmal job creating / job saving record? The President’s most recent jobs bill was so pathetic that Harry Reid would not even bring it up for vote until Mitch McConnell (a Republican) prodded him to do so.

It’s really too bad that you were not already employed when The Obama Depression hit. If you were you could have received 99 weeks of unemployment compensation; leaving you plenty of free time to protest capitalism. As a side note: Nancy Pelosi claims that unemployment compensation “creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.”

#2 –  Why are you protesting Wall Street? Shouldn’t you be protesting the education system that has raised average in-state tuition 72% over the last decade (private schools are up 34%) so tenured professors can continue to pull down nice, fat-cat salaries. While you are at it, you should protest Harvard whose endowment now stands at over $30 BILLION!

The most ironic element about this is how the protest organizers are encouraging college students to skip class and join the protest. Brillant!

#3 – The American Dream is NOT a promise! It is an ideal that can only be obtained by those of us who are willing to bust our ass, take risks, accept any job we can get when we first join the workforce and, take responsibility for our own success. The American Dream is not available to anyone who believes they are entitled to anything – a good job, food, shelter, other peoples’ money, health care, an education, your retirement funds, etc.

The federal government can either help make the American Dream more or less attainable. More government interference such as Obamacare, EPA regulation, Dodd-Frank, Sarbanes–Oxley, light bulb regulations, higher taxes, drilling moratoriums, rampant deficit spending and out of control entitlement programs with mind-blowing unfunded liabilities make the American Dream just that . . . a DREAM. Unshackle and unleash the American people and magic happens. Always has and always will . . . I hope!

In Defense of Herman Cain's 999 Plan

During a recent broadcast, Jason Lewis (Jason Lewis Show), was discussing Herman Cain's 999 economic plan and began a stream-of-consciousness defense of the program that I thought was brillant. 

What is The 999 Plan?
The 999 Plan essentially replaces the current tax code with a 9% Business Flat Tax, a 9% Individual Flat Tax and a 9% National Sales Tax. Cain describes the plan as "fair, simple, transparent and efficient" because it taxes everything once and nothing twice while broadening the tax base (the number of tax payers) at the lowest possible rates. 

Cain's Republican competitors for the nomination have launched the following attack on the 999 Plan: "I am concerned that once the 999 Plan gets in the hands of Congress, it will become the 21-21-21 Plan."

The Defense

If you broaden the base of tax payers, meaning that you increase the number of tax payers, you strengthen the defense of future tax increases. Currently almost 50% of tax filers pay no federal income tax. When Democrats demagogue the wealthy and perpetuate class warfare, these non-tax payers have no reason to question the legitimacy of the argument. In a sense, they could not care less if taxes are raised “on the rich” or anyone else for that matter because they are not paying a thing. No skin in the game.

The best analogy I can come up with is local property taxes. Dig up any news article about a proposed property tax increase anywhere in the country and what is the one constant? Broad-based outrage even from people who rent their homes because higher taxes means higher rent rates. Why the broad outrage?  Because of a broad tax payer base. People inherently do not like paying taxes for two reasons:

1. They would rather keep the money themselves and decide how to spend it.
2. They know that, when it comes to spending other people's money, government is inefficient at best and criminal at worst. 

This plan would kill the Democrat Party whose main weapon used to stay in power is a voter base dependent on government via entitlements, welfare, food stamps, etc and the apathy that comes from those who pay no federal income tax.

I think Cain's plan is phenomenal. It is just what this country needs to get our economic house in order. 

A President of Firsts

Barack Hussein Obama's election to the presidency was historical for many reasons. Some of the reasons might not be obvious:

• First African-American.
• First to go completely unvetted by the lamestream media. 
• First to openly call for fundamental transformation of the greatest country in the history of the world 
• First to grow the national debt more in the first half of his first term than his predecessor did in eight years.
• First to bow to a Japanese leader.
• First to grow the deficit more in the first half of his first term than all of his predecessors combined. 
• First to prefer being an effective one-term President than an ineffective two-term President.
• First to tour the world and apologize for the country for which he is supposed to be leading.
• First to reside over the downgrade of the nation's debt rating.
• First to have married someone who openly stated that she had never felt any pride toward the country until her husband was elected.
• First to hang out with an unrepentant terrorists. 
• First to sit in a pew of an American-hating preacher for 20 years (and never heard any of his hateful, racist comments).
• First to reside over $1,800/ounce gold price.
• First to visit 57 states.
• First to pursue energy policies that will “necessarily skyrocket” our electricity prices.
• First to insist on tax increases during a recession.
• First to openly pursue policies that will push our debt-to-GDP level to 185% within 25 years. (See May, 2010 CBO report) 
• First to openly display his economic ignorance virtually on a daily basis.

I don't know about you, but I am so proud. 

The Problem With Unions

The job of a union is to represent its members? On its face that seems innocuous although lots of problems reside below the surface? Some examples may explain:

The teachers' unions represent the teachers.
The American Federation of School Administrators represents the school administrators.

• I propose the creation of The Students Union and The Parents-of-Students-Union? Our education system spends more per pupil than anytime in history and yet the results still suck.

The American Postal Workers Union represent postal workers.
The American Federation of Government Employees represents government employees.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees represents state and municipal employees.

• I propose the creation of The Taxpayers Union. 

The United Autoworkers Union represents autoworkers.

• I propose the creation of The Shareholders of General Motors Union.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association represents air traffic controllers.

• I propose The People-Who-Die-in-Plane-Crashes-Because-Air-Traffic-Controllers-Fall-Asleep-on-the-Job Union.

The Screen Actors Guild and The International Affiliation of Writers Guilds represent actors and writers.

• Can someone tell me why actors and writers require a union with such physically demanding work?

While unions once played a valuable roll in our society, with a few exceptions they are now simply a tool of the Democrat Party. If you are interested in researching this yourself start with the following Google searches:

• "Card Check"
• Union political contributions by party
• White House visitor logs 
• Research the Occupy Wall Street movement and see who is behind it
• Andy Stern (SEIU) 
• "George Soros unions"

The Economic Ignorance of Our President

Rarely does a single quote offer such incredible insight into the ignorance of the speaker as the following statement made by Barack Obama this week bashing Bank of America for raising debit card usage fees:

"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."

The American Bankers Association said "it's disappointing" that the president "would attack a private corporation for responding to government price-fixing that has fundamentally altered the economics of offering a debit card." You think?

QUESTION: Mr. President, why don't these companies have an inherent right to just "you know, get a certain amount of profit"? Since when did maximizing profits become something to avoid?

Such a statement can only be made by a socialist, an anti-capitalist, a communist, a progressive, a misguided liberal or some combination of all of them.

Obama's second feeble point is that the inherent profit is not permissible if the customers are mistreated or there is a lack of transparency.

QUESTION: Mr. President, do you believe that, because of their name, “Bank of America” is the only bank in the country and that, given their monopoly status, citizens have no other choice where to park their cash?

Someone on the president’s staff should inform him that there are over 6,500 FDIC-insured banks in this country. The lesson here is that liberals think the populace is too stupid to make their own decisions without the help of government – buying health insurance, where to bank, what light bulbs to buy, etc.

Regarding the president's comment about transparency: What the hell is more transparent than announcing the new fees THREE MONTHS before they are implemented? Remember, this line of thinking comes from the President who promised to have the most transparent administration in history including the broadcast of the healthcare bill debate on C-SPAN. Instead we get a bill passed via "deem and pass" and "reconciliation" and no C-SPAN.

Finally, it is about time that the American people stand up FIRMLY and PROUDLY for capitalism. If not for capitalism, the American experiment would have ended a long time ago and the world as a whole would be a lot worse off. Those people who are trying to "fundamentally transform" this country are trying to squash capitalism and individual freedom – plain and simple!

Wake up America!

Debit Fees and Goverment Regulations

Updated: October 5, 2011

So Bank of America is raising their debit card usage fees and the country is outraged. Do not point the finger only at Bank of America! Washington deserves at least 50% of the blame and any news outlet that does not give you the whole story should be called out.

After Bank of America announced a $5 monthly debit card usage fee earlier this week, the usual drumbeat bashing of BIG BANKS began. What happened to intellectual honesty and curiosity? Does anyone care about the truth?

The Left is brilliant in their perpetuation of the bashing of BIG business in general and BIG banks specifically. After all, their goal is more government control of our lives. Capitalism is the largest impediment to gaining that control.

If you want to engage in an honest debate about this topic, you must ask the obvious question: "What the hell do you expect a business to do when the government shaves billions in revenue off their books?" If you care to understand the truth, please research the Durbin Amendment in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. I implore you!

The banks are NOT non-profit ventures. They have shareholders for whom they have a fiduciary duty to maximize profits. Look at the debit card business in particular. Inside the BIG, BAD banks are debit card lines of business which, by the stroke of a pen, last year saw a huge chunk of their revenue abolished. What are those business leaders supposed to do? They MUST make up the revenue somewhere. Usage fees is one place to do that.

Financial Crisis History Lesson:

When the financial crisis hit, the Left and many on the Right blamed “the BIG bad banks” for causing it. Then many of these same financial institutions received government bailouts. Some of them did NOT want to take the money but were coerced to do so "for the good of the country". That is only part of the story. Again, I implore you to research the sub prime mortgage fiasco, which dates back several decades and several administrations.

Below are a few places to start to uncover the governmental pressure on the banks to make sub prime loans:

1. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977.
2. Janet Reno's Justice Department constantly threatened to sue banks if they did not make loans to "under-served areas", to "underprivileged" borrowers or to borrowers "without the means of the wealthy".
3. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
4. Barnie Frank - As Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, he blatantly lied about the "fundamentally sound" institutions.
5. Bush tried to fix Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (see link above).
6. ACORN repeatedly used coercive acts to pressure the banks to make bad loans.

The Lessons:

#1 - Every government regulation has a downstream impact. Durbin (who is one of the more despicable members of Congress once comparing our troops serving at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviet gulags and Pol Pot) knew the banks were going to be forced to raise fees to cover the revenue short fall. This would give the Left one more opportunity to bash BIG business and BIG banks.

On October 4, DICK Durbin displayed just how audacious his hypocrisy is by slamming Bank of America for taking actions to make them whole from his amendment. Dick said. "When Bank of America decides they want to nail their loyal customers...they should be held accountable."

#2 – Who will be hurt more by a $5 debit card fee – the rich or the poor? The most ironic part of this story is how the Democrats in Congress, who claim to be the party of the poor and downtrodden, constantly punish their own constituents via more and more government regulations and taxes on the private sector. These government fiats, whether they are gas and cigarette taxes or financial limitations on debit card transaction fees, always hit the poor hardest. A $1 per pack tax on cigarettes or a $0.10 per gallon gas tax or a $5 monthly charge for using a debit card hits the guy making $10 an hour harder than the guy making $100,000 a year.

#3 – Never take any news outlet at their word. Do your own research!

#4 - We need to elect people who will examine the downstream impacts of legislation.

#5 – We need to elect people who are looking for solutions, not quick fixes and sound bites.

Click here for a great Forbes.com article about this issue.