Mitt Romney’s criteria, for deciding which government programs to eliminate is a meaningless sham.

His editorial in USA Today says a lot that should please liberty loving people who long to diminish the power and cost of the federal government.  He is appropriately critical of President Obama for “one of the most dramatic expansions in Washinton’s power in our nation”s history.”  He reminds us that the 2012 election will be “of great moment.”  Voters will decide if America is to be “an Entitlement Society” or an Opportunity Society.”

In an Entitlement Society, government provides every citizen the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort and willingness to innovate, pioneer or take risk. In an Opportunity Society, free people living under a limited government choose whether or not to pursue education, engage in hard work, and pursue the passion of their ideas and dreams. If they succeed, they merit the rewards they are able to enjoy.

So far, so good. Obama’s drive to implement the progressive movement’s dream if an Entitlement Society has culminated in the current, intractable economic crisis.  The 2012 election may indeed be our last chance to reverse the trend.  But in what is perhaps the most important paragraph, Romney’s action plan is a deep disappointment.

The first step in returning to an Opportunity Society is scaling back our vast federal government. I will put every single government program to a simple test: Is this program so critical to our nation’s future that we should borrow money from China to pay for it?

Romney hopes to appeal to the reader’s emotions with what seems like bold and decisive criteria for sorting unworthy from “critical” programs.   Unfortunately it’s a trick.  It’s the same trick Barack Obama used to win the support of millions of voters who are now appalled by his Presidency.

In the prologue to his second book Barack Obama wrote what would become the conceptual foundation of his Presidential campaign:

“…I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”

Candidate Obama went on to exploit his blank screen concept with promises of undefined “change.”  Thus, Millions ended up projecting their own views upon his blank screen and then voting for those views without realizing Obama had not disclosed his views or plans for controlling our lives from Washington.

If the Romney version of the trick succeeds he’ll pick up primary votes from people who don’t realize their list of non-critical programs to defund comes not from Romney, but from inside their own heads.

Romney’s critical-for-our-nation’s-future criteria is meaningless because Each one of hundreds of federal programs has a lobbyist, a constituency of dependents, and friends in Congress who will summon up compelling, emotion-driven reasons why it’s critical to our nation’s future.  Thus, Romney’s criteria will not shrink government, and will not result in any significant change from Obama’s policies.

The Founders vision, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is that The People, not the government or its bureaucrats, are “the nation.”  The People decide for themselves, as individuals, what is critical to their future.  This is how liberty works!

The founders gave these matters a lot of thought and wrote a Constitution limiting the powers of government to a very few that were “enumerated” in Article I, Section 8.  After the Constitution was ratified by the states and became the law of the land many citizens expressed fear that the government would overreach and take on powers not enumerated.  So the founders followed up two years later with the Tenth Amendment to make sure there was no doubt in anyone’s mind 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.”

The problem today is that over the past century the government has assumed upon itself myriad powers and functions not authorized by the Constitution.

The best campaign promise Romney or any candidate could make would be to start phasing out or canceling  Unconstitutional programs in an orderly fashion, shrinking government back to it’s core Constitutional functions within a specified number of years.  Of course we won’t hear that promise because each candidate is afraid of the inevitable blow-back from the media and his adversaries as soon as he mentions any specific program by name.

Even Ron Paul, who tries to sound like a true believer seems to favor hanging on to some of the largest programs that are clearly Unconstitutional.  For example, instead of offering a plan to wind down and phase out Medicaid and Medicare over time, Paul promises that taxes collected for those programs won’t be spent elsewhere.  This promise is utterly meaningless because no tax is collected specifically for Medicaid, and Medicare already spends every dollar of its dedicated tax plus billions more from the general fund.

If Romney or any other candidate were serious about liberty and smaller government he/she would hold up the Constitution as the criteria for deciding which programs to eliminate.

Here at Liberty Works we often point out that the Constitution does not authorize any of President Obama’s initiatives, nor most of the current “programs” the government runs.  It does not authorize any bailouts of any banks or companies.  The Obama stimulus, federal health care takeover, and energy initiative,  are all Unconstitutional.

Unfortunately, we’ve come to a sad moment in American history when anyone who refers to, or advocates obeying the Constitution is shouted down as an “extremist” or even a nut case.  The entire political-media establishment is united in defiantly disregarding the Constitution.

But resistance is slowly growing at the state level.  Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has signed Resolution 27, passed by the Alaska House of Representatives, claiming “sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.” The final vote was 37-0, with 3 not voting.

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The full text of the Alaska resolution:

“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”; and

WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being
that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and

WHEREAS the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the
federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and

WHEREAS some federal actions weaken states’ rights protected by the Tenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of the United States of
America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had,
rights the federal government may not usurp; and

WHEREAS art. IV, sec. 4, Constitution of the United States, reads, “The United
States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,” and
the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads, “The enumeration in the
Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by
the people”; and

WHEREAS the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States,
112 S.Ct. 2408 (1992), that the United States Congress may not simply commandeer the
legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

WHEREAS all states, including Alaska, find themselves regularly facing proposals
from the United States Congress that weaken states’ rights protected by the Tenth
Amendment;

BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature hereby claims sovereignty for
the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers
not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the
United States; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution serves as Notice and Demand to the
federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are
beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED that all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to
comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass
legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.

COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of
the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and
President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of
Representatives; the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S.
Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska
delegation in Congress; and all other members of the 111th United States Congress.

Unfortunately, we’ve come to a sad moment in American history when anyone who refers to, or advocates obeying the Constitution is shouted down as an “extremist” or even a nut case.  The entire political-media establishment is united in defiantly disregarding the Constitution.

However, we may be at the very beginning of an historical moment when the nation begins to hold Congress and The President accountable for Constitutional compliance. This week the Oklahoma Legislature took up the matter with a joint resolution that will be sent to the President and Congress, to instruct them on their continuous violations of the Constitution.

Let us hope the Oklahoma Legislature becomes only the first of dozens of Legislatures to stand up and demand that the federal government conform to the Constitution.  The first step should be to repeal the stimulus, the huge, extra borrowing-spending program hyped by President Obama, and passed by the Congress on February 13, before the thousand page bill was even printed, and thus, before any Senator or House Member could read it.

The 75 second TV news segment starts with a 15 second commercial.

The full text of the Oklahoma Legislature’s resolution appears below the video
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Text of Oklahoma Legislature’s Resolution:

WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows:
“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.”; and

WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and

WHEREAS, the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and

WHEREAS, today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government; and

WHEREAS, many federal laws are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal government may not usurp; and

WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 4 says, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”, and the Ninth Amendment states that ”The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”; and

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

WHEREAS, a number of proposals from previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from Congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 1ST SESSION OF THE 52ND OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE, THE SENATE CONCURRING THEREIN:

THAT the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.

THAT this serve as Notice and Demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.

THAT all compulsory federal legislation which directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.

THAT a copy of this resolution be distributed to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate of each state’s legislature of the United States of America, and each member of the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation.

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