Days of expanding deficits, will they never end?

Will we, the citizens of the US never learn? Are we going to allow ourselves to be sentenced to the insanity perpetuated upon us by our elected officials until our country completely breaks down? How long are we going to abide by the absolute fiscal irresponsibility continually approved by our government officials who believe so strongly in the power of incumbency and the short memory span of their constituents that they can do anything they choose without recourse?

I am speaking specifically about the budget deficit our Federal government is passing on to the tax payer. I recall during the 2008 election cycle that candidate Obama made big news with his complaints about how during his last year in office President Bush was such a bad manager of the nation that he allowed the federal deficit to grow to the amazing sum of $162 Billion dollars. I agree that this is a staggering sum and it is ridiculously irresponsible, but this was at the end of the 8 years of mismanagement.

Today the treasury department announced that the federal deficit for the month of October 2009 -- ONE MONTH -- exceeded $176 BILLION. ONE MONTH! Let me repeat this, because it is really important, in ONE MONTH, the federal deficit for monies spent by the Obama administration EXCEEDED the entire most expensive year of the Bush administration.

In his first fiscal year in office, the Obama administration took the American citizens into the hole to the tune of $1.42 TRILLION DOLLARS!!! Yes, that is TRILLION with a capital “T”. To make matters worse, the total deficit for the 2010 fiscal year is expected to top 1.5 TRILLION. Again that is a “T” as in Trillion, as in more money than each citizen can count if they spend their entire lives counting.

Just as a point of reference, 1.42 Trillion was the largest deficit recorded by a federal administration since the end of WW II in 1945 and we are project to top it again this year.

Of course the President has promised to deliver a deficit reduction plan as part of his 2011 budget, but he also plans to push through the health care plan and the cap and trade bill, which, regardless of what he may say, will cost the citizens of this, our United States, additional Trillions (yes again the “T” word) over the next ten years.

So, I ask again, will we never learn? As my friend Bob keeps saying, I think it's time to throw the bastards out -- all of them! It's time the start this govenment over.

The General welfare of the United States --

That's it. That is all the constitutional power that Congress has. I know this because the people who wrote the Constitution stuck on two pesky amendments. I like to call them the "And we really mean it!" amendments. Here they are:Amendment 9 The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 10 The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The exact wording of the 10th Amendment is important. Here, the "United States" clearly means the federal government. The powers of the United States (according to the Constitution) are not the same as the powers of its citizens ("the people"), nor are they the same as the powers of the individual states.So the phrase, in Article I, Section 8, "general Welfare of the United States" only applies to the inner workings of the federal government. The Framers could not have made the point any clearer. Pelosi and Hoyer have no power over the citizens' health care because they are given that power nowhere in the Constitution. The words "health" or "health care" appear nowhere in the Constitution. So according to the 9th and 10th Amendments, the "right" of health care must be guaranteed and paid for by each individual state.

Perhaps, one day our representatives will understand that General Welfare does not mean WELFARE. It never has. "General welfare" is mentioned only twice in the Constitution. The phrase appears once in the Preamble, but the Preamble gives the legislative branch no authority whatsoever.

"General welfare" is also mentioned once in Article I, Section 8. Here is what it actually means in that section:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States

Notice that the Constitution doesn't say the "general welfare of the citizens of the United States." It says "general Welfare of the United States." This clause only gives the Congress the power to raise money to defend the country and pay for the day-to-day operations of the government. It says nothing at all about building bridges to nowhere, or paving bike paths, or spending money on any other kind of pork barrel project -- including health care.