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JR Dieckmann
Holding Congress Accountable With a Constitutional
Panel
December 7, 2009
When congress was established by the Charters of Freedom in
1776, it was expected that responsible and honorable
men would be elected to serve their country in the
best interests of the people. That is no longer the
case. Two main problems are responsible for this.
Although we still have a few honorable men and women
serving the best interests of the country and the
people, we also have far too many individuals in
congress devoted more to their own special interests
and political careers. Someone recently said the
words “career” and “politician” should never be
connected together. I couldn’t agree more.
In order to get themselves re-elected, politicians
have taken up the practice of using federal
taxpayers’ money to fund special interest projects
within their own state or congressional district -
projects that should be funded by state and local
governments, not by federal taxes. They use our
money to buy themselves votes, and the federal
government uses this money as leverage to control
the states.
To curry favor with their constituents, politicians
also propose and support federal laws and projects
which have no foundation or authorization in the
Constitution and which result in trillions of
dollars of federal spending to be paid for in
greater debt for everyone, and higher taxes for half
of the working population who actually pay federal
income tax.
The fact that over 40% of working Americans don’t
pay any federal income tax is a problem in itself -
in that they will always vote for government
entitlements and tax increases on wage earners as
long as it doesn’t cost them anything.
For this reason it is essential that all earned
income be taxed or none at all should be taxed. This
40% plus of wage earners might be more concerned
about government spending if they had to help pay
for it. They would be more prone to vote for
responsible custodians of the taxpayers’ money. This
is the argument in favor of the “fair tax” proposal.
Obviously, this current congressional majority isn’t
interested in seeing their lower income voters
switch to the other side of the political fence.
The other problem is that the Constitution grants
power to congress to be both lawmakers and holders
of the federal purse strings. No money shall be
drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of
appropriations made by law…, says Article I, Section
9 of the Constitution. This is another case of the
fox guarding the henhouse.
In Section 8 of Article I it specifies the specific
things the congress may use public monies for. This
is known as “the Enumerated Powers.” The congress no
longer respects these constructional limits on the
use of public money, and these elected officials
feel they can use it for anything they want to -
simply by passing a law to authorize the spending.
Since this has become accepted operating practice by
those in congress who have not only become corrupted
themselves, but have corrupted the meaning and
intent of the Constitution, we should consider other
means of holding congress accountable to the
Constitution.
The balance and separation of powers between the
legislative and executive branches of government was
intended to prevent these excesses from happening as
the president would have to approve any laws
proposed by congress.
But when we have a president and majority members of
congress who are all in the same cabal and pursuing
the same unconstitutional agenda, then the checks
and balances of government no longer work. This
current “president,” unfortunately, has no more
understanding of, or respect for the Constitution
than does the majority in congress.
Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) has repeatedly introduced
the “Enumerated Powers Act” which would require
Members of Congress to include an explicit statement
of Constitutional authority into each bill that is
introduced. It would hold Congress accountable for
its actions.
"According to the Tenth Amendment, the national
government cannot expand its legislative authority
into areas reserved to the States or the people,"
said Shadegg. "It is a well-known fact that the size
and scope of the federal government has exploded
since the New Deal. Congress continues to operate
without Constitutional restraint, creating costly
and ineffective programs and blatantly ignoring the
principles of federalism."
Congress has never brought this proposal to a vote,
nor do they ever intend to. It would force them to
respect and obey the Constitution that created them
in the first place. It would hold them accountable
to the Constitution and to the people they are
supposed to represent and force them to become
responsible custodians of the people’s money.
Since members of congress refuse to be ethical and
responsible to the people, a new approach is now
needed. What we need is a constitutional buffer
between the congress and the treasury - an
independent agency of constitutional lawyers whose
job it would be to determine the constitutionality
of all congressional appropriations. This would
create a constitutional window between congress and
the federal treasury.
This non-partisan panel could be made up of perhaps
10 persons, 5 Republicans and 5 Democrats, and would
require not just a majority, but unanimous consent
before any money is drawn from the treasury.
Obviously, these panel members could not be
appointed from the congress for obvious reasons.
They must be independent of congress.
One idea might be to incorporate this panel into the
Congressional Budget Office since they already pick
apart and analyze these bills anyway, and are a
nonpartisan group. A constitutional panel within the
CBO could return to congress a statement identifying
the constitutional authorization for the funds to be
drawn from the treasury or no such funds may be
drawn.
Another idea might be to require the Treasury
Department to confirm constitutional authorization
before releasing any monies to the congress. The
constitutional panel could be created within the
Treasury Department.
The Treasury Department is bound to follow the
Constitution every bit as much as congress is. If
the treasury releases money not authorized by the
Constitution then they are just as guilty of grand
theft as the congress is.
The Treasury Department should reject any requests
from congress for funds that are not accompanied by
a reference to the specific article and clause in
the Constitution that authorizes congress to use the
money for the stated purpose.
Obviously, none of this can happen while the current
band of socialists, Marxists, and communists are in
control of the congress because the congress would
have to authorize the panel.
Corruption runs rampant throughout this government
and congress both morally and constitutionally. Self
interests and political agendas are given the
highest priority regardless of the harm they do to
our republic. Elected officials have trashed their
oath of office with constant violations of the
Constitution that they swore to defend and protect.
In the House of Representatives, the members are
concerned with representing their states and
districts. In the Senate, members should be more
concerned with serving the best interests of the
nation as a whole, not just their state
constituents. As it now stands, no one is
representing the best interests of the country.
We can only achieve responsible and constitutional
government when conservative constitutionalists
dominate the congress and return the respect to our
country and its people that the Constitution
demands.
If this does not happen over the period of the next
two elections, then our constitutional republic is
gone forever, along with our individual freedom and
liberty. We must not let this happen, or the
citizens of America will be returned to bondage and
enslaved to an oppressive government forever. |
