The Stoos

There is a new campaign site up for Preisdent Obama that clearly shows just how serious they are about taking care of people from the cradle to the grave which you can view here!

We could talk about the fact that they beg the question of who is going to pay for all this “care” that Julia gets in her life or the fact that she seems to have only one child and there is no mention of a husband or church.  Even if she manages to still get social security when she retires, it sounds like a pretty lonely time to me!

However, I would suggest using this as an object lesson on the US Constitution.  Our founders gave us a Constitutional Republic where they enumerated the powers that were granted to the Federal government.  This means they were to have those powers and NO others.  So here is section eight of article I that lists the powers that congress has been given.  Go through the “benefits” that Julia has been given by the Federal Government and see if you can find where such authority was given by this article.  After you have done this, go down the list of those benefits again and see which ones the presumptive Republican nominee would eliminate.  Also, explain to the kids that they will meet people who argue that all of these are done under the “general welfare” clause which they see at the beginning.  IF that clause means that Congress has the power to govern all of our general welfare, then there is nothing congress would not have the power over, which is where we are at today.  It is certainly not what was intended and clearly explained by those who actually wrote the Constitution!  They intended the list of power given below that clause to be the only powers that Congress held with all other kept by the states or the people.

US Constitution, Article I, Section 8:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

• To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
• To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
• To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
• To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
• To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
• To establish post offices and post roads;
• the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
• To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
• To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
• To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
• To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
• To provide and maintain a navy;
• To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
• To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
• To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
• To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;–And
• To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

Hope you have some great discussions and remind your children that they really do have the responsibility to take care of themselves and other members of their families!

In the Lamb,

John