Leviathan Unchained

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one...." -- James Madison


Today's Supreme Court ruling on the Obamacare and the Individual Mandate marks a black day in our history.  The premise of the ruling is that Congress has essentially unlimited authority to levy taxes.  But when does a tax become a fine?  The ruling upholds the idea that Congress can fine you for failing to comply with any action they dictate.

Unfortunately, we started down this path a long time ago when we embraced tax exemptions for "good behavior."  By dressing it up and calling it an exemption (instead of a penalty for everyone else) we swallowed the poisoned pill and made it part of our tax code.

Our Founding Father recognized the threat posed by the power to tax, and placed limits on it to ensure it would be used soley to collect revenue, not to enslave the populace.  Direct taxes had to be uniformly distributed, without picking favorites: "No capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census."

That protection was struck down by the 16th Amendment, and the tax code has been a tool for social engineering and behavior modification ever since.

So now we face a future of fines whenever we fail to submit.  Life, Liberty or Property: Pick two.

To Support and Defend

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg's recent commentary on the Constitution has some people questioning her ability to uphold her oath, and with good reason.  "I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012." Instead "I might look at the constitution of South Africa."

A quick glance at the South African Constitution highlights some glaring differences from our own Constitution; differences which also highlight Ginsberg's unabashed political leanings.  South Africa guarantees its people food, water, education, housing and healthcare (among other things).  South African politicians are then charted to achieve these goals using their available resources.

The South African Constitution holds to the idea of "positive rights" which the left embraces and which FDR pushed for without our own government.  The key problem of course is that the government itself has nothing which it hasn't first taken from someone else.  In order to guarantee something to someone, you must first be willing to force someone to provide it, without regard for their personal liberty.

Frederic Bastiat succinctly describes the conflict between our Bill of Rights and FDR's "2nd Bill of Rights":

"The second half of your program will destroy the first."

In fact, it is impossible for me to separate the word fraternity from the word voluntary. I cannot possibly understand how fraternity can be legally enforced without liberty being legally destroyed, and thus justice being legally trampled underfoot.

Legal plunder has two roots: One of them, as I have said before, is in human greed; the other is in false philanthropy.

In fact, in order to enforce any sort of positive rights, you must first strip one group of their rights in order to satisfy another group, thereby failing the test of universality and putting to lie the idea of Equality before the law.  In doing so, the left clearly presupposes that some people are more equal than others.

Our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution with an eye towards limiting government's potential for abuse, and by safeguarding Liberty they ensured an abundance of prosperity to their decedents.  If however we choose to sacrifice Liberty in order to gain material security, we will lose both.

Faust's Bargain: Charity and Government

The latest edition of Columbia includes an article by Alton J. Pelowski entitled "In Defense of Life, Love and Freedom" describing the problems when a private charity becomes dependent on public funding.  Similarly, Catholic Charities in Illinois are closing their adoption services because of new requirements to change their screening criteria to accept gay couples in order to receive government funding.

Although I empathize with their distress, American Catholics who have traditionally supported government-sponsored social programs have only themselves to blame.  Non-profit organizations who have been happy to trade arduous fund-raising for siphoning tax revenues are likewise guilty.

"Free money" is always hard to resist, but there's always a catch.  Once you've accepted the money you lose the freedom to run your organization as you like (which is why some organizations like Hillsdale College eschew public funding).

Indeed, the Catholic charities are faced with a dilemma of their own making.  If they refuse to  compromise their principles for money, they must either close their doors or return to the days when they relied on their own voluntary fund-raising efforts.  The latter option is obviously more difficult; a consequence of diverting funds from private donations to publicly mandated tax revenue.

Instead it looks like they're taking the easy option: quitting.

Freedom of Consent

We have to remember that the people in government are just like people in the corporate world.  They're ultimately self-interested.  They need to feel the connection between their actions and their consequences to make good decisions.  The difference is that we've entrusted them with coersive power; the authority to use force to compel us to do or not do certain things.  And power once ceded is rarely given back.  We really ought to remember that before inviting them into every aspect of our daily lives:

The problem... is that government is no different from any other organization in society -- it seeks its own aggrandizement. AT&T, General Motors, and Microsoft would love to have world monopolies, controlling all the resources and expanding into every corner of people's lives. But they are limited by competition, the dynamics of the marketplace, and the need to win people's consent in order to market their products.

Government is different. It expands by fiat, through legislation, through taking advantage of emergencies, and by declaring that private entities can't be trusted and government intervention is necessary. Most of all it grows by raising taxes and hiring more and more people so that soon its voter base approaches a majority of the electorate.
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/09/26/the-moochers-credo/

Let's face it.  It's easier to convince a majority of 435 people in Washington D.C. than it is to try to win the consent of millions of consumers exercising their freedom in the market.

An American's Creed

An American's Creed - by Dean Alfange

I do not choose to be a common man
It is my right to be uncommon...
If I can. I seek opportunity... Not security.

I do not wish to be a kept citizen,
Humbled and dulled by having the state
look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk;
to dream and build, to
Fail and succeed.

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole.
I prefer the challenges of life to the
Guaranteed existence; the thrill of
Fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.

I will not trade freedom for beneficence
Nor my dignity for a hand out. I will
Never cower before any master nor bend
to any threat.

It is my heritage to stand erect,
proud, and unafraid; to think and act for
myself; enjoy the benefits of my
creations; and to face the world boldly
and say, "This I have done with my own hand,
I am a man. I am an American.

Life, Liberty... and Property

No one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions. - John Locke

The right of property is that which every citizen has of enjoying and of disposing at his discretion of his goods and income, of the fruits of his labor and industry. - French Constitution of 1793

That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights... namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. - Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776

That the inhabitants of the English Colonies in North America, by the immutable laws of nature... are entitled to life, liberty, and property, and they have never ceded to any sovereign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent. - DECLARATION OF COLONIAL RIGHTS, FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 1774

Property does not exist because there are laws, but laws exist because there is property. - Frédéric Bastiat

The right of man to private property is, therefore, the right to enjoy one's property and to dispose of it at one's discretion (a son gre), without regard to other men, independently of society, the right of self-interest. This individual liberty and its application form the basis of civil society. - Karl Marx, 1843

Government originated in the attempt to find a form of association that defends and protects the person and property of each with the common force of all. - Jean Jacques Rousseau

The recognition of individual rights entails the banishment of physical force from human relationships: basically, rights can be violated only by means of force... The only function of the government, in such a society, is the task of protecting man’s rights.

In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary. Men are free to cooperate or not, to deal with one another or not... i.e., by means of discussion, persuasion, and contractual agreement, by voluntary choice to mutual benefit. The right to agree with others is not a problem in any society; it is the right to disagree that is crucial. - Ayn Rand