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Am I Simple-minded about the Tenth Amendment?


by Donald A. Tevault

    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.

Maybe I'm just simpleminded, but. . .

When I read the Constitution and see its list of things that the federal government is authorized to do, I assume that those are the things that the government is authorized to do. When I read the Tenth Amendment and see that the federal government isn't authorized to do anything that's not in the list of authorized duties, then I assume that the federal government isn't authorized to do anything that's not authorized in the Constitution. So, when I see that administering health care isn't in the list of authorized duties, I naturally assume that the federal government isn't authorized to administer health care.

But, our esteemed lawmakers, presidents, and Supreme Court justices keep finding novel ways to justify allowing the government to go beyond its Constitutional authority.

In this case, it's now been determined that Obamacare is Constitutional, because it can be construed as a "tax", and it's legal for Congress to impose taxes. According to that logic, it would be perfectly Constitutional for Congress to tax the living bejunior on gun sales and gun ownership, thereby making gun ownership completely unaffordable. That wouldn't be construed as an infringement of the Second Amendment, because Congress has the power to impose whatever taxes it desires to impose.

To tax away 100% of Rush Limbaugh's, Mark Levin's, Mike Church's, or Alex Jones profits, thereby causing them to have to go out of business, wouldn't be a violation of the First Amendment. Oh no. Congress has the power to impose whatever taxes it wants to impose, so confiscating all profits from conservative talk show hosts would be perfectly legal.

John Roberts doesn't seem to realize that he's opened the door to unlimited tyranny.



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