Detroit News
Nolan Finley
The latest marginalization of the Tea Party movement dubs its members "tenthers" and finds in their obsession with the 10th Amendment evidence of quackery, or perhaps even racism.
Tea Partiers do like to wave the 10th Amendment, which gives to the states and the people any powers not specifically delegated by the Constitution to the federal government. They find in it justification for their campaign to derail health care reform and other huge expansions of government's footprint. Since the Constitution doesn't mention health care -- or education, or the environment or a host of other things the federal bureaucracy now controls -- they say, their tax dollars have no business flowing to these programs.
Washington, of course, blew the doors off the 10th Amendment ages ago and no longer acknowledges any limits on its powers. The federal government raises and spends nearly twice as much than all the states combined.
Critics see the Tea Party's failure to acquiesce to this reality as evidence of its outdated mindset. The kindest jabs find it amusingly quaint that its followers would read the Constitution and actually think it still means what it says. The more vicious connect the revulsion to an overpowering central government to arguments in favor of slavery and against civil rights. Once again, the attacks go, racists are hiding behind states' rights... full article here
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my comment:
Excellent article on what the Teaparty Patriots are all about. If we do not return our nation back to the vision of the Founders and be that Republic ruled by Law, obeying the Constitution, our history of liberty and freedom of being the greatest nation to ever exist on Earth will be over.
The current push to nationalize healthcare is totally unconstitutional. The logic of using the 'General Welfare' statement in the Constitution as a clause for anything, points to a logic of what followed those words in the Constitution. For what purpose is the rest of the Constitution is 'General Welfare' is a blanket for any power taking? Why did the tenth amendment speak to enumerated powers?
We are at the door of Social Security bankrupting, Medicare has even greater trouble coming shortly and yet the Federal Government wants to enact Healthcare as a national power? Please note that under Medicaid, over 46 million are already illegally covered by subsidies from the Federal Government.
What we need to do is move the existing social programs from the Federal government to the States. We are smart enough to figure it out. A simple State plan providing HSA/IRA individually own plans would replace SSI & Medicare/aid. The transition will take a decade or two and it would be fiscally possible if we removed the tyrannical tax structure we have and replace it with the FairTax plan, which will provide a hyper-job growth boon.
George
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