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Enumerated Powers Act: Interview with Walter E. Williams
clipped by: merrie   2  6
 clipped from www.allrightmagazine.com

ALL RIGHT MAGAZINE: You are a professor of economics.  If a student walked into your office at George Mason University, declared that she were quitting college, but wanted to know one thing about economics for the real world, what would it be?

WALTER E. WILLIAMS: There’s no free lunch.  That is that there’s nothing free.  Everything costs.  That’s one of the problems that our economy’s facing right now or that Americans are facing.  They think that they can get free health care. 

ALL RIGHT MAGAZINE: You have called attention to something called the Enumerated Powers Act that would require Congress to list the Constitutional authority for each law, which has not yet, of course, passed.  Even so, wouldn’t the claim just be the General Welfare Clause, or the Necessary and Proper Clause?

WALTER E. WILLIAMS: Yeah.  Congress will always find a way around the Constitution.  However, I think if you read the Enumerated Powers Act that’s sponsored by Congressman John Shadegg,
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clipper's remarks: who has introduced it every Congress since 1995, it does not allow them to get away with the Commerce Clause and the General Welfare Clause. They have to specifically point in the Constitution where they get the authority. And as a matter of fact the reason the Enumerated Powers Act’s maximum number of co-sponsors in the House has been 31, or it could be a bit higher than that (and it has never had a co-sponsor in the Senate until this year) is that the Congressmen can read the writing on the wall. If Congress were forced to obey the United States Constitution, then I would say that two-thirds to three-quarters of all the spending Congress does would be found to be unconstitutional.

ALL RIGHT MAGAZINE: You’re probably right about that. Article 1, Section 8 has a very short list of things government is able to do according to the word of the law.

WALTER E. WILLIAMS: That’s right, and if you read the Founders’ statements, they say that Congress can only do those things....


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2 Comments
by merrie on 11-6-2009 5:47 PM
. . that are specifically enumerated. On my web page Walter E. Williams.com, I have quotes from Madison and Jefferson, and I believe that Jefferson said that Congress cannot do anything in the general welfare but only those things specifically enumerated.

ALL RIGHT MAGAZINE: Those quotes are full of that kind of thing because they were trying to get away from King George III and Parliament and some of those decisions.

WALTER E. WILLIAMS: That’s absolutely right, and Americans do not understand the level of contempt that Congress has for the Constitution because here’s a guy or a woman who puts their hand on a bible and swears to uphold the Constitution, and the first thing they do is try to tear it down. However, the more worrisome thing is that I wonder whether the contempt by Congressmen for the Constitution just represents the contempt Americans for the Constitution, that is if you said to Americans, look, this Social Security program, it’s not authorized by the Constitution, and we’re going to get rid of it, they would go ape. Or if you say, look, this senior citizen prescription drug program is not in the Constitution, so we’re going to end it, you’d have these people rioting…..

http://economics.gmu.edu/wew/

Economics Professor and author of “Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism”

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http://www.allrightmagazine.com/exclusive-interviews/interview-with-walter-e-williams-2229/
by blueridge on 11-6-2009 7:25 PM
Absolutely agree with the Enumerated Powers Act bill, and people should go here to DownsizeDC.org to support it and contact their legislators, along with similar bills for Constitutional reform.