Words Used to Mean Things – Then Came Government

We are a nation founded upon and (allegedly) governed by words. Beginning with – specifically, foundational-ly – the Constitution. Every syllable was by our Founding Fathers debated and carefully crafted. To ensure a limited, enumerated government, maximum freedom for We the People – and a document that clearly, concisely laid out these parameters.

The Constitution is a “living, breathing document” – but with the amendment process as its only respiratory system. If you don’t like it – amend it. Otherwise, it is what it is – it says what it says.

The Constitution established a system that also relies on precise language. The Legislative Branch writes legislation – that must be within government’s Constitutional parameters. Every syllable is debated and carefully crafted. And since we directly elect this Branch’s members, we get to have a direct say in the words meant to lord over us. We get to lobby Congress to redress our grievances – to help shape the words they write.

“We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it” is an unbelievably heinous dereliction of Congressional, Constitutional duty.

When passed, legislation is then sent for signature to the Executive Branch – a President we also elect. If the President signs, the panoply of departments, agencies, commissions and boards then implement it. Though these entities exist in the Executive – they are creations and creatures of the Legislative. They would not exist without law first creating them. They can not do anything unless and until the Legislative with law tells them to do it. And they are bound to adhere to the spirit and the letters of these laws – and to remain within their parameters. The words passed must be the words implemented – no more, no less.

As we’ve seen for decades – and on steroids during the Barack Obama Administration – the huge regulatory apparatus has made rocketing past its limits standard operating procedure. Overreaches, fiats, diktats – the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Health and Human Services (HHS), et cetera ad nauseum. Written words – ignored and eviscerated in favor of ideological impositions.

All of which is why there is a Judicial Branch. The Judicial is in the strict-Constitutional-limits-enforcement business. They are to ensure that the laws written – and the government they create – exist within Constitutional bounds. Justices and judges are unelected to avoid political influence – which only works if they remain unpolitical, within their Constitutional bounds. If they write legislative words rather than merely analyze them – reworking laws into new meanings and mandates – we have (yet more) problems.

In the Supreme Court’s King v Burwell decision, six of its nine Justices green-lit yet another huge Obama Administration overreach. By pretending – and allowing HHS to continue to pretend – that plain words don’t mean plain things.

Via: Red State

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Senators, Must Be Impeached NOW Before Obama is Crowned Emperor with Supreme Power and Dictatorship

On Thursday, November 21, 2013 the United States Senate, led by the most controversial anti-American in Congress, Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, cast aside the rule of laws of more than 200 years since the Senate was initially formed as stated by a Democratic pollster, Patrick Caddell on FoxNews.com.

Ironically, Caddell has done pollster work for President Jimmy Carter, wannabee presidents Gary Hart and Joe Biden,  as well as others of his Party. And also ironically, the votes on the removal of basic protections for issues’ deliberations as opposed to outright absence of democracy principles, contained three otherDemocrat senators who voted for the country’s people and not their party leaders, (Levin, MI; Manchin, WV; Prior, AR).

Republican Senators voted unanimously in favor of retaining the checks and balances of of judicial appointments that has been the rule since the Senate became the third element of the federal government along with the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch. 

The power grabbing tactics of Harry Reid in directing a vote to dismiss vote cloture which required a 60 percent favorable vote to stop debate, the main principle for which the Senate was created, are purely not in the general good interests of the people as a whole.

Via: Canada Free Press

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Rand Paul Pushes Constitutional Amendment on Congress

Forget the Vitter amendment. Rand Paul wants to make sure that Congress can’t ever again write laws with provisions specific to lawmakers.

The Kentucky freshman Republican has introduced a constitutional amendment that would preclude senators and representatives from passing laws that don’t apply equally to U.S. citizens and Congress, the executive branch and the Supreme Court. The amendment is aimed squarely at Obamacare provisions specific to members of Congress and their staffs that became a central point of contention during the government shutdown.

Under Obamacare, Capitol Hill aides and lawmakers are required to enter the law’s health exchanges and a summertime ruling from the Office of Personnel Management ensured they will continue to receive federal employer contributions to help pay for insurance on the exchanges. A number of lawmakers, specifically Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), have been pushing for the end to those contributions, arguing they amount to a Washington exemption from Obamacare. Vitter has drafted legislative language that would eliminate these subsidies and tried to attach the measure to an energy efficiency bill and pushed for it to be included in the government funding bill last week.

 (WATCH: 7 defining quotes from Rand Paul)

Paul seeks to go a step further and amend the Constitution so that “Congress shall make no law applicable to a citizen of the United States that is not equally applicable to Congress,” the executive branch including the president and vice president as well as the Supreme Court.

Via: Politico

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Reid: 'Anarchists have taken over'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday said “anarchists” have taken over Congress.

Reid (D-Nev.) said Tea Party Republicans are preventing progress on an energy efficiency bill by offering amendments on ObamaCare and other unrelated issues.

“We’re diverted totally from what this bill is about. Why? Because the anarchists have taken over,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “They’ve taken over the House and now they’ve taken over the Senate.

“People who don’t believe in government — and that’s what the Tea Party is all about — are winning, and that’s a shame.”

On Wednesday, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said he would prevent votes on lawmakers' amendments to the energy bill until he's assured he'll get a vote on his amendment, which would require some congressional and executive branch staff to enroll in the ObamaCare health exchanges.

“It’s defund ObamaCare, and I guess as the fiscal year comes to and end that’s what it’s all about,” Reid said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also introduced an ObamaCare-related amendment that would delay the individual health insurance mandate for one year, and codify the Obama administration's one-year delay of requirements that employers provide insurance.

“Let’s delay ObamaCare mandates for families right now,” McConnell said. “Then let’s work together to repeal the bill.”

The Senate is working on S. 1392, the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act. This bill is meant to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Reid said he hoped he and McConnell could work out a deal to allow votes on germane amendments later in the day.

Via: The Hill

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Morning Bell: Our Constitution Is 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.

Via: The Foundry (BLOG)

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