David Boaz Quote

"The real reason to abolish departments like Energy and Education is not to promote efficiency, nor even to save taxpayers’ money. It is that many agencies perform functions that are not Federal responsibility. The founders delegated to the Government only strictly defined authority in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. Search the entire Constitution, and you will find no authorization for Congress to subsidize the arts, finance and regulate education or invest tax revenues in energy research."

by:	David Boaz (1953-) Author, executive vice president of the Cato Institute
Source:	Budget Cuts: Less Than Meets the Eye, New York Times, Op-Ed Thursday, July 6, 1995
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Categories:	Statism, Constitution, Jurisdiction, Usurpation
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Ahhh YES ! the way it should be ! Lawful, Constitutional, and a limited representative republic.  -- Mike, Norwalk
Mike, yes sir, we are all [excpet you know who] fighting the good fight, to resore what we know to be the best way, we are in the middle of this battle, and we will win it. Time, patience, and educating our kids, we will raise the awareness level farther than yts eevr bee. We want proper rule of law, justice, truth, the American way. and it no pipe drem, it is the most serious battle free men have had to fight in 50 years. Thanks to those of you who speak thier mind, and speak the truth. We all see the problem, are educated as to the evil, and who is perpertray=ting it.now.what to do? The vote of course.....trusting the poles is another subject, one which bothers many. Im for going back to paper ballots, and wittnesses from evry state in the union, and not obe rep, should be a politician.For myself anyway, my trust lvel is at an all time low. After watching the blantant corruption, who could blame me?  -- Kimo, Hawaiin Nations
We now have more (unConstitutional) government that we've ever had and things are most definately NOT getting any better. In fact we are becoming a Police State.  -- J Carlton, Calgary
Since when do they follow art.1, sec. 8 anyway? par.5 AND 6 (counterfeiting), as the Fed does? I'm surprised Ron Paul doesn't quote this directly as I fee he should !  -- Dr. Tom LaMar, Keeseville, NY
-- Mary - MI
With government subsidy comes government control. I have always praised then Cato Institute and Ron Paul should start saying their quotes. Good thought Dr. Tom.  -- cal, lewisville, tx
I don't know about the Constitution or that the founers were all knowing about the world that was to come. In a shrinkng globe with mass communication, travel, internet etcetera it stands to reason that people would become closer, more interconnected. That folk share ideas about energy and education across city, county, state, and national lines is well just a fact of life. Since this sharing results in a free people forming county, state, national, and international forums, organizations etecetera about these issues is also natural. That governments city, state, national, and international are aware of this tendency is also natural that they will have and ear and a say in these affairs. For after all is not government simply the controlling of the streets, towns, villages, cities, counties, states, and nation in a manner consistent with some degree of freedom for the individual as well as for the citizens (at large eg, community) of the street, town etcetera. If we are going to do things together like educate then will not government (which after all is nothing more than togetherness) going to have a say?  -- Waffler, Smith
And Waffler once again does his best to put Roses around the cancer we know as Global Communism. Nice try Komrade, but it doesn't fly.  -- J Carlton, calgary
Waffler, as usual, your comment is pure nonsense. " Government is nothing more than togetherness", you are truly insane. I wonder how that would have sounded to a Jew in Nazi Germany or someone in a Gulag in Stalins Russia. Maybe a political prisoner in Cuba would find that comment comforting. George Washington summed it up when he said, "Government is not eloquence, not reason, it is force, and like fire it is a dangerous servent and a fearful master". But of course, we all know that you are smarter than Washington.  -- jim k, Austin, Tx
Tell us some practical, doable things that we can work on, then push us all hard to get it done. We lose out, because we either do not know what to do or are too lazy to get at it and accomplish what our forefathers intended for us to accomplish. Or is all of this just wishful thinking?  -- Dr. Dale Smith, Auburn, CA
Dr. Dale - Burn your Representatives phone, email and fax machine up with demands to audit the Federal Reserve. Organize and educate your friends and associates as to just how it operates. Here's an interesting and entertaining little video on the subject that needs to go viral" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD1G7f4bE0w  -- J Carlton, Calgary
I think most people who mention the Constitution to support dumb cases have not read the Contstitution, in this case not even the Preamble. Pull the document out and read the first words which include among the purposes of our government the words "promote the general Welfare." If you can't see energy and education as general welfare you are certainly in need of more understanding. Here's what John Adams had to say about that subject: "Government is instituted for the common good; for the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it." And for the sake of sanity itself will most of you writers look up the definitions of communism, fascism, and socialism?  -- dick, fort worth      1
dick, the words 'promote the general Welfare' have been used to twist ANYTHING the government wants to do to be for the 'welfare' of the nation. Madison addressed this distinction -- there is a big difference between 'promoting' and 'providing.' Madison states, "With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." Madison continues, "If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress.... Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America."  -- E Archer, NYC
The thing that most collectivists ignore the use of force to implement their utopian dreams. That is the hypocrisy of 'liberalism' -- so-called liberals are not any more liberal than the Catholic Church in their heyday. In this case, the collectivists have set up their own religion of collective power -- when 'charity' is compulsory, then it becomes 'tribute.' Progressives seem to forget that the MEANS cannot justify the end. Just because the 'end' is supposed to be 'to help the poor,' that does not justify robbing the middle class. The MEANS of socialism, fascism, and communism are subservience to the state -- this is directly in opposition to the American republican model whereby the state's power is strictly limited and subservient to the rights of the People. THEFT in order to do 'good' is impossible, for doesn't the thief always have a justification for his thievery?  -- E Archer, NYC
"...you will find no authorization for Congress to subsidize the arts..." HALLELUJAH!!! With the exception of classical music and symphony orchestras, we are in an artistically dark age, despite decades of government's throwing our tax dollars at talentless, undisciplined, marketing-savvy sensationalists!  -- Byron, Fort Collins, CO
To remain in the misguided past is surely inadvisable. The. Constitution is need of tremendous updated amendments. The document must certainly be revised to keep pace with a more rigorous technological world. The founders were certainly not qualified in many respects to make qualified decisions for the contemporary world.  Human beings are more refined now. They have a advanced aware of human qualities, the founders were greatly retarded in their development, slave owners, after all.  Contemporary citizens are much more refined and sophisticated and can revise the document for a more productive nation. Socialism is the challenge of social abilities to create a human constitutional document.  -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown      1
Correction: Modern human beings have an advanced awareness of human qualities, the "founders" were greatly retarded in their in their social development, slave owners, after all. Humans simply don't acquire slaves. We must release ourselves of our "founders" conformist attitude.  -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown      1
Correction#2: Modern human beings have an advanced awareness of human qualities, the "founders" were greatly retarded in their social development, slave owners, after all. Human beings simply don't acquire slaves. We must release ourselves of the conforming to the "founders" attitude. Socialism is the challenge of social abilities to create nonconformity and uniformity.   -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown      1

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