A Command State ?

The Ruling Classes in DC seem to have decided to grab powers that were never contemplated in the US Constitution. I mean the power to order the people - you, each person - to do whatever the ruling classes desire, or suffer punitive fines. This is a positive order to command an action / behavior, not a subsidy or prohibition.

The instantiation* of this seizure of power is the mandate in ObamaCare that each person MUST buy health insurance or suffer a fine.

The Supreme Court has ruled that Congress has no power to order States to do positive actions; Congress gets its way by subsidies or threat to withhold other funding. Such rulings were based on the Tenth Amendment, which states that "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." Notice that "the people" have an equal status in this Amendment.

Where else does the US Constitution permit the Federal Government to command the people ? I can find only in its right to raise armies, viz. draft people into the military. There is plenty of power to regulate and restrict activity, but that's NOT the power to give you orders to do something which you may not wish to do. There is power to tax in several places, but imposing fines for not doing something is not a tax.


One can find strong evidence that contrary view holds, viz. that the Federal Government has no powers to command the people except through a military draft.


The 13th Amendment in part states, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Is not a command to do something a form of involuntary servitude ? What else could it be but that power of a Baron to command his slaves or serfs to do work. There is no exception here for a general or implied power of the United States to command the people.

The Third Amendment states, "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." This was put into the Constitution because of centuries of abuses by English kings in forcing the people to quarter soldiers [here, "quarter" means to house and feed]. The kings did that either to avoid asking parliament for funds, as King Charles I did in the English Civil war, or as the English Parliament did in 1765 to force the colonies to pay for the support of British troop, and not the English people. That abuse was cited in the Declaration of Independence and led to the Third Amendment.

I see no logical conclusion but that the individual mandate in ObamaCare is unconstitutional and an abuse of power.

That doesn't mean that I don't support a universal health care benefit in the US. My blog post of October 21, 2009 specified the right way to provide this. You can find it in the Blog Archive on the right, but here's a direct link:

http://viewfromthebunker.blogspot.com/2009/10/solution-to-health-care-dilemma.html


My view on how to raise the money has changed, however. See my blog post of November 24, 2009; here's the link:

http://viewfromthebunker.blogspot.com/2009/11/to-solve-twin-deficits.html

If Congress would do the right thing, it could solve the three largest problems facing America: lack of jobs, budget deficits, and access to health care for the people. If Congress did this, I'm sure they would go down in history as the greatest Congress since the 1st Congress. But their current path is to go along the path of King Charles I and King George III in seizing more power and oppressing the people.

Markets

Waiting. I was a bit disappointed in the ISM Services #. Jobs in the US will mostly come from services, so that sector need to get a lot stronger.

PS: Sold the spec longs out. The crappy jobs number made the decision for me. If I hadn't, the Green-Red rule would have told me to sell anyway. Small net loss. Standing aside for now.

Word of the Day

"Instantiation" - noun [$10] noun, from "instantiate" = verb [$10]
Instantiate means to represent by an instance; (alternate) to represent (an abstract concept) by a concrete or tangible example.
Sentence: See * above.