by Paul Engel, America Outloud:
We often talk about the legal and societal impact of our ignorance of the Constitution, but what about the monetary costs? We all complain about how much we pay in taxes, but have you taken the time to consider where all of that money is being spent? Let’s take some time to look at the spending authority of federal agencies in 2023 and see what we can learn, and how much of our money is being illegally spent.
I don’t know anyone who enjoys creating a budget. It’s boring, tedious, and generally frustrating. However, as a much younger man, I learned the importance of knowing where the money was coming from and where it was going. So while it may not be fun, budgeting is an important part of fiscal responsibility. Which perhaps explains why the federal government is so bad at it.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
The other problem I see with understanding federal spending is the fact that most people don’t deal with large numbers very well. Telling someone a car costs $50,000 is one thing. Telling them it will cost $1,000 a month, and they seem to do a better job deciding if they can afford it or not.
With these two limitations in mind, I want to take a look at the 2023 federal budget and see if we can’t make some sense of what our employees are doing with our money. Before we discuss the dollars, though, I need to make some sense of government spending.
Government Spending
There are two clauses in the Constitution that we need to understand before we dive into the money. First is Article I, Section 8, Clause 1:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States, but all Duties, Imposts, and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 1
The first thing we need to understand is that Congress can only legally collect taxes to do three things. First, pay the debts of the United States. Second, provide for the common defense of the United States. Third, provide for the general welfare of the United States. That’s a capital “U” and a capital “S,” making it a proper noun. It’s the very same proper noun used in the second clause; we need to understand The Tenth Amendment.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.
U.S. Constitution, Amendment X
Unless a power is delegated to the United States by the Constitution, it doesn’t belong to it. I know it sounds simple, but it’s the general misunderstanding of these two clauses that lead to so many of the problems in the federal government.
According to Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, unless Congress is paying the debts, providing for the common defense, or the general welfare of the union called the United States, they are not allowed to fund it with taxes, duties, imposts, or excises. And since these different forms of taxes are the only way Congress has of collecting money, it means they cannot legally pay for these things.
By now, someone is asking, “But what is the general welfare of the United States?”
The name United States was given to the union of states in the Articles of Confederation.
Article I. The Stile of this confederacy shall be, “The United States of America.”
U.S. Articles of Confederation
The word “stile” was another spelling of the word “style.” Among the many senses of that word, we find:
Title; appellation;
Style – Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
So the confederacy of states formed in 1776 was titled “The United States of America.” This title was retained when the new union was formed under the Constitution in 1787,
Why is all this important? Because the General Welfare clause does not give power to Congress to collect taxes on anything they think is generally beneficial. James Madison made this point while debating the Cod Fishery Bill in 1792.
It is to be recollected that the terms “common defence and general welfare,” as here used, are not novel terms first introduced into this Constitution. They are terms familiar in their construction, and well known to the people of America. They are repeatedly found in the old Articles of Confederation, where, although they are susceptible of as great a latitude as can be given them by the context here, it was never supposed or pretended that they conveyed any such power as is now assigned to them. On the contrary, it was always considered clear and certain that the old Congress was limited to the enumerated powers, and that the enumeration limited and explained the general terms. …
If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may a point teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, everything, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress; for every object, I have mentioned would admit of the application of money, and might be called, if Congress pleased, provisions for the general welfare.
Debate on the On the Cod Fishery Bill, granting Bounties, House of Representatives, February 3, 1792
The Constitution is very specific; Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 limits Congress to collecting taxes for the general welfare of the United States, not the several states nor the people. It should be quite obvious that this power is applicable only to the central government and the property it owns (not that it has been much of a hindrance to Congress.)
Furthermore, since the Tenth Amendment limits the power of the United States to those delegated to it by the Constitution, Congress cannot claim the authority to do anything outside of those limited and enumerated powers.
2023 Spending
I want to focus on federal spending rather than the federal budget. The reason is quite simple; budgets can be easily manipulated. For example, the federal government’s 2023 budget is approximately $6.1 trillion, but according to USASpending.gov, a look at the budget resources by agency adds up to over $11 trillion.
Remember when I said most people don’t process large numbers very well? Trillions are very large numbers. A trillion is a thousand billion, or a million millions, but that probably doesn’t help very much. Consider this; if you were to start counting seconds, it would take you over 31,000 years to count to a trillion seconds. Or if you were to stack $1 trillion in $100 bills, the stack would be over 630 miles tall, which is more than twice as high as the International Space Station.
Read More @ AmericaOutloud.com
