FDR's Failed Policies Take Two

The Government Does Not Have the Constitutional Authority To Force Americans To Have Health Care

CNS News has asked some Congressional members where in the Constitution does it give the government the power to force Americans to buy health insurance, not one of them could answer the question. However, Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon states that it's in: Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, which says: "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."






That section is not what gives the government power to do anything of the sort and I am tired of these corrupt politicians misusing and abusing it to advance their agendas. The CBO has stated that “A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”

We were warned of this by George Washington when he said in his farewell address:

"Let there be no change [in the Constitution] by usurpation. For though this, in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed."

Why would he make a statement like that? Because he knew that during times of trouble there would be politicians that would try to forcibly take over the powers of government to impose their will on its citizens. This was the very thing that the Revolutionaries fought and died for to prevent and our first president foresaw it as a potential hazard if any president attacked the Constitution to advance an agenda.

And his omen came to pass in 1937.

Very few Americans know that, up until 1937, our government was conducting business within the realms of the 17 enumerated powers within Article I Section 8 of the United States Constitution. These powers authorized the government to levy taxes and allocate funds and anything outside of these 17 powers was considered out of the government's jurisdiction and was left to the states.

Between 1935-36 the Supreme Court struck down eight of ten statutes brought to them by the FDR administration as unconstitutional. Of course, FDR was none too pleased and declared war on the Supreme Court:

"we have therefore, reached the point as a nation where we must take action to save the Constitution from the Court and the Court from itself."

In 1936 the Democrat Party won an overwhelming victory at the polls and what happened next is what Constitutional historians refer to as the Revolution of 1937. Or what George Washington called the usurpation of the Constitution, which FDR used as a weapon to foist his agenda on the American people. What FDR proposed was that for each Supreme Court justice over the age of 70 that one new justice be appointed to "help with the case load". What he actually did was stack the Supreme Court deck with six additional judges that would back his "must have" legislation as Constitutional.

The role of the Supreme Court is to act as guardian of the Constitution; it does not make laws, but interprets them within the boundaries of the Constitution. If legislation is signed into law, the Supreme Court has the authority to strike it down if it deems it as unconstitutional.

According to an unnamed source, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes was so frightened by FDR's move that he was convinced that the president was going to change the Supreme Court's historic role as the guardian of the Constitution. What Chief Justice Hughes did next was an attempt to ensure judicial supremacy.

At that time there were were three liberals, four conservatives, one moderate and one swing on the bench; the swing vote being Chief Justice Roberts. It was Chief Justice Roberts that was convinced by Chief Justice Hughes to swing over to the liberal side and declare Steward Machine Co. v. Davis, which was a social security case, as Constitutional. By doing so, it was sent back to committee where it died and sent a clear message to FDR that the Supreme Court was not a weapon to be used against the American people. It also came to be known as the "Switch in time that saved nine."

However, this decision also sent a message to Congress that it would no longer be held to enumerated powers and instead could tax and spend for anything; so long as it was for the general welfare. But, the 'general welfare' clause in the enumerated powers of Article 1 Section 8 was never intended to be a weapon for carte blanche taxing and spending. And up until the court case noted earlier, the Supreme Court never acquiesced.

What we are witnessing today is The New Deal Take Two. It is of historic fact that Franklin Delano Roosevelt's policies were disastrous then and a repeat of these policies will be disastrous now and the current unemployment rate is evidence. To quote his closest friend and confidant, Henry Morgenthau:

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong . . . somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises . . . I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . And an enormous debt to boot!"

In closing I would like to quote James Madison, the principle founder of the Constitution:

“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the general welfare, the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.”

James Madison, “Letter to Edmund Pendleton,”
-James Madison, January 21, 1792, in The Papers of James Madison, vol. 14, Robert A Rutland et. al., ed (Charlottesvile: University Press of Virginia,1984)