Category — congress

James Madison wrote the following letter in the interval between Constitutional Convention and its ratification by the States. It’s interesting for a number of reasons. Historically, it provides insight into Madison’s perspective on The Bill of Rights, why it was not included in the Constitution to start with, and his motivation for championing it after the Convention. By the time the Constitution was ratified, and the first Congress was in session, much of the political impetus behind it had dissipated. Madison persisted and mostly thanks to his efforts, the Amendments became part of the Constitution.

Rube Goldberg’s cartoons illustrated overly complex ways to do simple tasks. He could have been a congressman. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may be the most convoluted and tortuous act ever passed by Congress. There are nearly half a million words in the bill itself, and government agencies have already issued over a million words of enacting regulations. And this is only a small fraction of ObamaCare’s 700+ directives to develop and issue regulations. Be prepared for chaos.

T. Coleman Andrews served as IRS commissioner during the Eisenhower administration. Following his resignation, he made the following statement which seems apropos for the weekend that all of our tax returns are due.

Why is it so hard to cut government spending? Because there are just so many reasons we can’t. Here are top ten excuses carried on a 3X5 card by nearly every politician.

In his new book, Mr. President How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive, Ray Raphael investigates the roots and evolution of the Executive Branch. For anyone wishing to understand how the presidency came to be what it is, this is the book to read.

The “food stamp” president isn’t much on individual liberty. When his policies end in disaster, he always blames someone else. Lately, he’s adopted Truman’s strategy of blaming that darned Congress. He seems to have forgotten that until a few months ago, it was a Democrat controlled Congress.

The State of the Union address was meant as one of the checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches. Every other president has been respectful of the other branches during the annual address—except for this president.

A return to constitutionality was supposed to be a hallmark of the 2010 election. Part of the GOP’s Pledge to America read, “We will require each bill moving through Congress to include a clause citing the specific constitutional authority upon which the bill is justified.” Republicans took over the House with considerable help from the Tea Party and other constitutional conservatives. How has Congress fared in delivering on its promise to comply with the Constitution?