What would happen if Congress debated everything constitutionally in Washington, D.C.?   There was a time when the first question that members of Congress asked when any piece of legislation came to them was, “Is it Constitutional?”  

That question is virtually never asked anymore.   The Founding Fathers had incredible insight and were often prophetic in their writings about the dangers of an overreaching Federal Government that grew too large and powerful. 

• They understood that any government becomes easy prey for tyranny when it garners great wealth and power. 
• They understood that as the Federal Centralized Government grew in size and power, it would likely become Tyrannical.  

Therefore, they were careful to place checks and balances to provide tools to prevent it from happening.    For about one hundred fifty years in our nation’s history, those elected to Congress allowed those checks and balances to function without impediment.   They often rejected bills, even ones they would like to see passed, because they did not believe the Constitution allowed them to enact them.  That never happens today!

Our Founding Fathers understood that any leader, whether a king or an elected president, who thinks he is a king can become a tyrant and likely will become a tyrant unless his powers are carefully limited.  They realized that although local governments were capable of tyranny, there was much less risk because they were much closer to the people, which forced them to be more responsive to the needs and desires of the populace they governed. 

Our Founders dealt with tyranny firsthand.   We endured eight years of tyrannical governance by Barack Obama and four years under Joe Biden.   Those two seemed to believe their own rhetoric and were such ideologues that they considered themselves destined to be Judges, Juries, and Executioners over America. 

In my opinion, when any president begins to act as though they believe whatever they desire to do should go unquestioned and anyone that challenges him should be and must be crushed without mercy, we are in trouble.    You may say, “Roy, that is a bit harsh, don’t you think?”  But I would challenge you to view actions and policies over the past four years and how they will impact the future.

When the Colonists rebelled against the British Crown, it was not just the specific abuses of the crown or taxation without representation, as is clearly evidenced in the Declaration of Independence and subsequent documents.   The American Revolution was a Total Rejection of the concept of an “Oppressive National Government.”  It was a rejection of a government that failed to recognize limits to its power and the right of the people to enjoy “local self-rule.”  

Therefore, our founders designed a very weak national government. In fact, it was so weak that the Articles of Confederation had to be amended in 1787 because the initial Articles limited the National Government so that it could not carry out its assigned responsibilities of National Defense and those specifically designated to it.

They gathered, wanting to limit the national government but to enable it to regulate “interstate trade.”   The 1787 convention in Philadelphia produced a new constitution that expanded the power of the federal government, but in a very limited fashion and within carefully defined and detailed boundaries. 

Under the new constitution, the federal government was given the power to exercise sovereign, supreme authority in specific areas in which only a national government can operate.   In All Other Areas, the states would retain sovereignty.   That is virtually gone today! 

If you scrutinize the Constitution, you will find that virtually every power granted to the federal government can be found in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.  That article empowers Congress to tax and borrow money; regulate interstate and foreign trade; establish uniform laws for immigration and naturalization, bankruptcy, weights and measures, trademarks, copyrights, and patents; coin money and regulate its value; establish post offices and post roads; establish federal courts; provide for national defense; grant letters of marque and reprisal; declare war; and serve as the sole sovereign lawmaker over land purchased by the United States with the consent of the host state.  

If you study that, you will realize that the Constitution Does Not Grant Congress or the President the power to pass any and every piece of legislation that it decides is needed to make life “better” or “fair.” 

Additionally, it Does Not Grant Congress or the President the power to:

• Nationalize our Nation’s Healthcare System, Auto Industry, Banking, or any other industry.
• Create a cradle-to-grave entitlement or welfare system.
• Dictate to any American citizen where to go to the doctor and how to pay for it.
• Spread the Wealth.

Clearly, by the Constitution, Congress is Restricted from passing Any Law or Legislation in any area where it does not have specific power to do so.   That goes for the President and his Executive Fiats as well.  This is crystal clear in the Constitution, was clear to every delegate at the convention, and is spelled out in even more detail in the Tenth Amendment, which was ratified a short two years after the Constitution took effect. 

For approximately 150 years after the Constitution was ratified, those in each of the three branches of government respected and honored it. That changed with “The New Deal.”   Under F.D.R., the first question of “Is it Constitutional?” changed. Franklin D. Roosevelt set out and successfully expanded the federal government in an unprecedented scope, and it has never stopped growing since then and likely will never stop.

We endured presidents Obama and Biden, who ignored the Constitution.   Obama lamented that it was “too restrictive” because it specified limits on the federal government rather than granting it the power to do whatever it chose!   

If he had had his way and allowed one or two more appointments to the Supreme Court, our Constitution would have become nothing more than a historic document with no meaning or power.   In many ways, we have a Constitutional Crisis in America.  I also believe that many Americans are growing weary of allowing them to toss us a few “crumbs of bread,” so to speak.

I believe that it will take divine intervention to save this nation. Still, at the same time, I believe that you and I must do everything we can to stem the tide of the erosion of Constitutional limitations on the federal government.   I do not have all or possibly any answers except to Pray and Work to Elect People who will be Strict Constructionists of the Constitution.  The one thing that my core principles and beliefs will not allow is for me to quit!    

May God bless you, and may God bless America!