Exploring Who Can Do What

August 28, 2024

You might have thought the 16th and 17th Amendments were the worst we’ve ever passed, but in this class we learned even more “unintended consequences” of those two actions. They were worse than we thought!

The creation of the income tax by the 16th Amendment began a fundamental shift from treating everyone as individuals to the treatment of people by what group they belong to. That way of thinking has produced distortions in many areas, with people being treated differently based on an unlimited list of qualifications instead of being equal in the eyes of the law.

The change by the 17th Amendment in the way we elect Senators eliminated the role of the Senate in protecting us against federal “over-reach,” and resulted in massive growth of the federal government far beyond its defined purposes.

We also explored the original meaning of “general welfare,” and how those who wrote the Constitution warned against that phrase being interpreted exactly as it is used today. James Madison predicted that if we understood those words to convey a general authority to do whatever the Congress thinks would be for the general welfare of the country, all sorts of evils would result… and every one of them that he listed have in fact occurred, to our detriment.

In our next class (at noon on September 4th) we will dive into the ‘enumerated powers’ - exactly what Congress and the States are authorized to do, and what each is prohibited from doing. Let’s just say we’ve strayed from the course!

Come join us for the discussion!