POWERS

of

             CONGRESS

 And Commentary

=====================================

 “The number of elected officials, who are willing to put the good of the country ahead of their ego, and the success of their political party, is minuscule”.

 Vince Flynn

First, a word about the

Constitution; ratified about 15

year after the Declaration of

Independence.

I shall to make this as clear

as possible. The Constitution

–does NOT, I repeat, does

NOT grant us any rights as I

so often hear so many

educated pundits and

Politicians say. It is designed

to protect the rights we

already have as stated in the

Declaration of Independence,

“that all men are created

equal, that they are endowed

by their Creator with certain

unalienable Rights, that

among these are Life, Liberty

and the pursuit of

Happiness”

The best example and the

most famous of the 27

Amendments is the First of

the 27

 Please read if carefully.

Religion, Ratified 12/15/1791.

“Congress shall make no law

respecting an establishment

of religion, or prohibiting the

free exercise thereof; or

abridging the freedom of

speech, or of the press; or

the right of the people

peaceably to assemble, and

to petition the Government

for a redress of grievances”.

========================

Our Constitution gives no rights or power for the Federal government to control in any way, heath programs, the automobile industry, eduction or banking, or for that matter a multiplicity of other programs many of which concerning industries that didn't exist in the late 1700's

========================                                                                         POWERS OF CONGRESS

 As per the constitution

 Section 8 - Powers of Congress

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 Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;and

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 an 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;

To promote 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, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

 Is the administration at serious odds with the Congress? Who is really in control, the  executive branch,  the Congress or.... ?

 _________________________________

The reality:

EVERY CITIZEN NEEDS TO READ THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS JOURNALIST HAS SCRIPTED IN HIS MESSAGE.

READ IT AND THEN REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE. Who created it –why it exists? The answer follows.

The "blame game"

 The other guy did it- 

The reality is that there is no"other" guy(s), read on.

545 PEOPLE

                      By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget.  The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

100 Senators, 435 Congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices, 545 human beings out of the 300 million Americans are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic( and international) problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because the Congress created that problem in 1913 by delegating its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority.

They have no ability to coerce a Senator, a Congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing.

I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it.

No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault.

They cooperate in this “common con” regardless of  their party affiliation.

What separates almost all politicians from  normal human beings is an excessive amount of gall and a blatant lack of integrity.

No rational honest human being would have the gall of the Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.  

The president can only propose a budget.  He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.    

The speaker of the House is   Nancy Pelosi.  She is the leader of the majority-Democratic- party.

She and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want.

If the Army & Marines are in   IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ .

They do not receive normal Social Security for they are on an elite retirement plan ($15,000 a month even after serving just one term!!).  This obviously is not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.  Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do; to handle all situations in the best interest of the American people.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who they have been elected to serve.

The voters need to have the gumption to manage their own employees- our elected officials

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

              Charlie Reese a journalist for 49 years is a former columnist for the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper

====================================

 What you do with this article is up to you You have several choices

(see a comprehensive list  of what you can do- see The Reason & What You Can Do page):

 1.  You can send this to everyone in your address book and hope "they" do something about it.

 2.  You can agree to "vote against" everyone that is currently in office, knowing that the process will take several years and ask your representative to vote for TERM LIMITS.

 3.  You can decide to "run for office" yourself and agree to do the job properly.

 4.  Lastly, you can sit back and do nothing or re-elect the current bunch- Same thing.

=======================================

[Note: There may be a "battle" between the Congress and the Administration over recent sweeping "Administration" bills and the general philosophy  of government.

This is the way it is supposed to be- free independent thought and debate, within the three independent branches of government.]

  Traditional American Debate

Kennedy/ Nixon 1960- 1st Presidential TV Debates

One Party Power - No Debate

THE CAPITOL DOME

  Many, but not all, powers of Congress are contained in Article I, Section 8. t However ,he full list, including the law-making powers are in a concise  " bullet point" form  that follows:

*Levy Taxes
*Borrow money on the credit of the United States.
*Spend when authorized by an appropriations bill
*Pay the Federal debt
*Constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court
*Declare War
*Raise armies, a navy, and provide for the common defense
*Introduce constitutional amendments and choose the mode of ratification
*Call a Constitutional Convention on the application of two-thirds of the States
*Regulate interstate and foreign commerce.
*Coin Money

Coin Money
*Standardize the value of currency
*Regulate copyrights and patents
*Establish federal courts lower than the Supreme Court.
*Limit the appellate jurisdiction of the Federal Courts including the Supreme Court.
*Standardize weights and measures.
*Establish uniform times for elections.
*Control the Postal System
*Establish laws governing citizenship
*Make its own rules and discipline its own members .
*Provide for the punishment of counterfeiting, piracy, treason and other Federal Crimes.
*Exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the District of Columbia
*Establish Bankruptcy laws
*Override presidential vetoes.
*Oversee all Federal property and possessions
*Fill a vacancy in the presidency in cases of death or inability
* Receive and count electoral votes for the Presidency
*Keep and publish a journal of its proceedings
*Conduct a census every ten years.
*Approve treaties, cabinet level appointments, and appointments to the Supreme Court (Senate only).
*Impeach (House only) and try (Senate only) federal officers.
*Initiate all bills for raising revenue (House only).