Liberty and Freedom: Spending

The questions of how government raises money and why, how they spend it and on what, have been on my mind for some time. Once upon a time in The United States of America these questions were answered by our Constitution. Last Saturday I bought The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, which is a wonderful guide to understanding the founding of our great nation. By studying the Constitution we really learn what makes this country great.

Spending Clause
"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..."(Article I, Section 8, Clause 1).

We find that early on in the nation's history there were differing view points on the implications of the spending clause.

Madison's view was that this limited Congress to only being able to spend if it furthered ends that were spelled out elsewhere in the Constitution; Jefferson agreed with this idea.
Hamilton's view was that the clause imposed virtually no restrictions on what Congress could deem as the "general Welfare" of the country.
A third view, later espoused by Monroe, was that spending by Congress is to be unrestricted as long as it is "general" and benefits the nation as a whole and not only a specific locale or region or group of people.

Transition
Early Congressional actions show that Hamilton's view was rejected. And administrations throughout most of the first half of the 19th century rejected the broad interpretation also. The limits on Congressional spending have been slowly eroding ever since, most notably with FDR. And that brings us to our current situation:

National Debt - $10.9 Trillion
Deficit for FY 2008 - $454.7 Billion
Deficit for first 4 months FY 2008 - $88.9 Billion
Deficit for first 4 months FY 2009 - $569 Billion

And what is the solution to controlling, reducing, or eliminating these current deficits? Raise more taxes. IF THAT IS NOT THE MOST ASININE IDEA!!! What do us "average folk" do when we get into debt? We spend LESS. Instead, two weeks ago we signed into law the $787 Billion "stimulus (wasteful spending) bill," soon we'll have a $410 Billion spending bill to cover government operations for the rest of the fiscal year, and to top it all off last week the President rolled out his $4 TRILLION budget for FY 2010!

This is insanity, it clearly violates the principles of the Constitution, and it will bankrupt the next generation if we do not do something to get these irresponsible, arrogant ideologues out of power SOON!

$1 Billion = $1,000 Million = $1,000,000,000
$1 Trillion = $1,000,000 Million = $1,000,000,000,000