It is amazing how backward United States politics can sometimes
become. When Congress has to pay debt & fund adequate programs &
services, it bogs down in revenue arguments. Actually its lawful duty
is to adequacy of provision, not simply provision, of whatever is
determined to be necessary to the "general welfare" of the United
States. Then it must find means to do so. That is the United States
law, though much of the ensuing political debate & media discussion
have failed to understand this crucial point. The founding fathers of
the Constitutional republic, educated as they were in what could be
known, and was considered relevant, at that time, wisely thought it
best to understand "general welfare" as being what is both necessary &
sufficient to assure the basic ideals of the Declaration of
Independence. The United States is understood clearly as "we the
people", meaning all of the people, leaving no legal room to leave
anyone out in any discriminatory or prejudicial manner. That
pertaining to the enabling of the preservation of life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness of every person, by whatever means necessary
to that effect. If something were imperiling lives, reasonable
liberties, or the chance to pursuit of happiness of any Americans,
then it was necessary to find sufficient government remedy to that
cause, by means of government expenditures on what would preserve the
lofty ideals enshrined in the founding documents of the Republic. Much
of that seems far too forgotten, & both the spirit & intent of the
founding fathers of the republic in some ways removed, made distant,
forgotten, both in terms of the intellectual, moral, & socio-political
climate of their own time and its influences on their immense, &
painstaking task for the sake of America's future.
Clearly the main test of the republic of the United States of America
comes, for both Americans & external observers, friends & foes, in
terms of whether America is living up to those founding ideals, & to
what measure it is doing so. That is the ultimate test of quality as
to the products of American politics, which are its laws as enacted by
Congress with presidential assent & in conjunction with the executive
branch. Many in America and abroad are beginning to conclude that
America is failing to live up to its own ideals. That it is losing its
right, won on the basis of those ideals & their long term promise, to
further its methods, principles, ideas about ways & means, even as to
ways of life & political systems & actions. They are beginning to lean
towards telling America to "shut up" & return to cleaning up its own
house. Recently that house has become its House of Representatives,
who seem intent on violating the essential spirit and intent of the
Constitution.
Cutting programs and services, as a means to "balancing the budget"
and "reducing the debt" is essentially backward thinking. It threatens
to impair the abilities of many of the member states, some more than
others, to cope with crisis, & particularly it imperils their
potential ability to improve their situations to a more viable future.
Thus it imperils the union as a whole. Eventually such cuts, hard
pressing on member states, some already cut to the bone in terms of
actual needs as opposed to what remains for them in terms of programs
& services, would further cracks in the union that could eventually
break it apart. Now that would amuse some of America's most fervent
enemies, who hope for that very outcome, having experienced similar
situations & threats themselves. That America should be made
vulnerable, due to a failure of its own system, in its own back yard,
is exactly what some most desire, in their globalized competitive
spirit.
Clearly it will be individual member states who will suffer the
greater burden from cuts at the Federal level. It also becomes their
duty to protect their own interests, in terms of dissent against
Federal, in this instance Congressional, making of policy and laws all
of which have effect on the states themselves. That dissent being
required by the Declaration and the Constitution as they were framed
by the founding fathers. In some regards, failing that dissent, the
system itself shows signs of breaking down and further deviating from
its original meaning and intent.
We might wonder where the National Governors Association, & the
individual governors of the various states are right now, and what
they are doing in relation to the impending threat of cuts to far
below what their states really need for the "general welfare" of the
people living within them. Programs & services being far from ideal,
already, & falling far short of what Constitutional law actually
demands if interpreted in terms of the intent of the founding fathers.
In that intent was a socialism, meant to provide for all Americans
equally, to further their equality in terms of preservation of life,
liberty and pursuit of happiness, without recourse to Draconian
socialist methods, which have prevailed in some other nations, brought
about by those nations turning to Marxism as their inspiration.
America's socialism has claimed that Marxism is flawed, in contrast to
its own system, based on its own Constitution, but the results of that
claim now remain to be proven & some in the world are predicting
America's failure with Marxism, and Marxist influenced ideology
winning out in the larger theater of international, globalized
politics.
A lot has been said recently about the jeopardy of the president in
this current situation. Mostly what has been said is wrong. The
Constitution demands Congress pay debt & fund programs for "general
welfare" of the people. The President cannot impeach or dismiss
Congress, even if they are proving deserving, but he can veto their
bills. They can try to overcome that with a two thirds majority vote,
but it is very unlikely that they can achieve that level of
unconstitutional irresponsibility. If they did, there are some other
things the president could do, including the use of executive orders,
risking impeachment, but the trial of the president for actually
upholding the Constitution and its truest meaning and intent would not
go well for the Congress or its relation to the member states and the
people of the United States who they are sworn to serve. Nevertheless,
the president would have to do something if the Congress continued to
act unconstitutionally and irresponsibly. We see divisiveness within
itself indicating it could never muster enough political will to do so
against the president's lawful and appropriate veto.
Now, saying that the Constitution would be violated by Congress if
they fail to pay the debt, and fail to support adequate programs to
meet the fundamental tests of both necessary and sufficient provision
for the "general welfare" of the people, needs to consider the added
fact that once Congress has approved both debt and adequate budget to
meet the needs of the people of United States, without unjust
prejudice or discrimination against any portion thereof, it must then
seek ways to pay for what it thus needs. Not the other way around. The
problem has long been backwards politics concentrating on the budget,
and failing to concentrate of needs. That will require cooperation
with the Executive branch, but in effect Congress needs to innovate.
The President could take the lead, considering a failing Congress, in
the quest for new revenue streams to support the Constitution's
obligations upon Congress. That should have been pursued by Congress
long ago, sufficient to avoid the current situation. Cuts not being
the constitutional answer. In fact the Constitution demands more
programs and services than the Congress has been willing to offer.
Revenue for that Constitutional obligation is also their
responsibility. It does not say how to fund, but it does demand
idealistic funding for high ideals. This is why the fiscal crisis is
so definitive of America's future, and is being watched so closely by
its enemies with such intense interest. Failure in that matter is a
globalized failure, and a failure by example, of example. It obviates
a number of ideals that America has long pushed in the world community
and could change the entire face of international politics, worldwide.
Of course as I said before the trump card does not rest with Congress,
it now rests with the President Barack Obama, as his veto of any
budget bill that violates either principle of the Constitution. The
president only has a veto, and was never given the power to dissolve
indefinitely or impeach in any way the Congress for its wrong doing.
He was only given the veto because the founding fathers did not want
anyone to become as though a "king". Some opponents of American
politics and policy are looking at the current crisis as what they
view as the inevitable failure of committees and complex multi party
negotiations as to supporting and effectively furthering high ideals.
They see the excess of compromise and an excess of conciliatory
negotiation, undermining more fundamental ideals as the death of the
American system and the end of its claims to universal validity. They
see a growing need, in contrast to what they see as the failures of
American politics, for stronger, less complex, but more powerful
means. They see America's failure to uphold its own Constitution and
the Declaration upon which it is based as indicative of unremediable
system failure of the system as such. It can only convince otherwise
by finding means to achieving its ideals, which it clearly is falling
far short of, and shows signs of abandoning.
Robert Ezergailis
Hamilton, Canada
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