RESOURCES & RESEARCH (Legal FAQ's)

HOW YOU ARE BEING SNOWED - SEE IT IN ACTION, RIGHT HERE

This is from the Public Broadcasting Website, which is not surprising at all:

"One way to limit the power of the new Congress under the Constitution was to be specific about what it could do. These enumerated, or listed, powers were contained in Article I, Section 8—the great laundry list of congressional chores. These included: to lay and collect taxes; pay debts and borrow money; regulate commerce; coin money; establish post offices; protect patents and copyrights; establish lower courts; declare war; and raise and support an Army and Navy. But the very end of this list contained one more power: to make all laws “necessary and proper” to carry out the enumerated powers. Also known as the Elastic Clause, this phrase allowed Congress to stretch its enumerated powers a bit to fit its needs. For instance, in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Supreme Court ruled that under the Necessary and Proper Clause Congress had the power to establish a national bank to carry out its powers to collect taxes, pay debts, and borrow money. Broad interpretation of the Elastic Clause has allowed expanded Congressional power."

"Federalism content written by Linda R. Monk, Constitutional scholar"

    There you go! It's written by a Constitutional scholar (paid by your tax dollars) and quotes from the U.S. Supreme Court, so we know it's true, right? She thinks that since the Founders included an Elastic Clause, Congress can "stretch its enumerated powers a bit," meaning a national bank is constitutional and Central Planners can now create inflation and destroy your currency, determine your interest rates, anything. Wow that was easy! And it was only a little stretch.

    PBS describes the Enumerated Powers (see excerpt above) as "including," as if there are more than what are listed, and technically she left out a few so they could say "including" is correct, although it leaves with the idea that they only listed a few of them. But that is not what the Constution says. Instead, it just lists the powers in Article I section 8. Power remained with the States and The People. They were granting limited enumerated powers to a new entity. It would gut the entire purpose to say "We give you certain enumerated powers, but we're only going to expressly list a few of them."

    Your Public Broadcasting Service does not include the actual wording of the Constitution on this point. All you need to know is that there is an Elastic Clause in the Constitution. We waste so much money posting guards around the Constitution, when all we really need is an Elastic Clause.

    Read Thomas Jefferson's comments, here.