So I have been thinking about this health care bill. As my train of thought developed from there, I realized that the true enemy of limited government was not an overbearing executive or judicial branch. It is the excesses of a legislative branch out of their minds and out of control. I do not think that any sane person can say that Congress is doing anything remotely constitutional as they continually pass laws that are clearly unconstitutional.
And when I say “unconstitutional”, I mean that anything that is not specifically declared in the constitution that the Federal government does is unconstitutional. I know this is a hard concept to grasp, but the Tenth Amendment makes it clear that any powers not specifically enumerated in the United States Constitution are reserved to the states. Sure you can stretch things and claim that certain things fall under interstate commerce, but that is a load of bull, especially when no one really knows what interstate commerce really means.
Congress is off the deep end with its spending, borrowing, and excessive printing of money. They have become a bunch of greedy thugs who prey on those under them instead of serving them as they are suppose to be doing. They routinely pass laws that benefit the few and forsake the many. They hardly ever listen to their constituents and they most certainly hold them in contempt. They rob from the rich to make earmarks to benefit their districts in order to secure their career as a politician.
Now that is a phrase that would make a Founding Father’s stomach turn: career politician. As far as I can tell, they regarded holding office as merely a duty to the citizenry and that they would rather be doing other things. These days it takes the death of a Senator to get him or her out of office and usually that means a brain tumor or instant-death heart attack. Pretty much every other disease that would kill them off naturally is suppressed and they are wheeled into the chamber in order to vote on things they have no way of understanding in their condition.
My first solution to the problem of Congress is obvious: term limits. Congress needs to be restricted to no more than 12 years of serving in high political office. After that, they cannot even serve as a Federal government employee. They are out and they need to find work elsewhere. They do not even get to run for the office of President after they serve a term or two in Congress. This ensures that we always see fresh faces with new ideas and hopefully more people willing to serve us than to harm us, intentionally or not.
But today I came up with a second solution, one that serves the purposes of limited government and freedom much more fully. We must limit the length of sessions that Congress has. We must restrict the time in which they have to pass bills and get things done. With less time to pass laws, the more likely they are to not increase the size and scope of the government because they will have much less opportunities to do so. How I wish the Founding Fathers had put that in the United States Constitution. Not that the constitution means anything to Congress.
You see, once you have limited government in place, what is the point of having a legislative body operate more than one month out of the year? When the executive branch is established and the judicial branch is taking care of misconceptions, why do you need a legislative branch to pass more laws?
I believe that Thomas Jefferson said, jokingly, that when Congress is in session, no man’s life, liberty, or property is safe. While it probably was a joke, although I have not read the context of the phrase, I know that there is always a hint of truth in those kind of jokes. Even back then, when the principles of freedom were well-established and we were still in the first generation, we were still at risk for tyranny in some fashion.
So perhaps we have been doing it all wrong when we expect Congress to be in session for most of the year. Perhaps they should only be in session for one month out of the year and that when they are not in session, they have to get regular jobs like you and me. Maybe that should have been in the United States Constitution in some fashion. I have found many flaws in it, for all the great things it does have, because there are too many apparent loopholes that have been exploited.
Still, there is no system that will perfect government, no matter how good it looks in theory. Mankind is a sinful creature and we always find a way to do evil, even when there are situations that are designed to prevent it. Congress is no exception to this rule.