By: Dale Weckbacher
Proverbs 1:5
A wise man will hear and increase learning,
And a man of
understanding will attain wise counsel,
NKJV
I am a fan of technology in spite of the fact that at times
it frustrates me, especially when it does not work. With the technology of the
Internet, it has never been easier to find information and then to express
opinions. Unfortunately, this freedom to
express and find information also means that there is a great amount of
erroneous information out there as well.
I had a tax client call me this week with a tax question
revolving around something they had read on the Internet. The information they had found through Google
was incorrect and I educated them about what the IRS had to say on the
issue. The good thing was that I was
able to quickly find the information to answer their question by using the
Internet and going to the IRS website. The
lesson we can learn here is that using the internet to find information is
helpful but one must be careful to get their information from reputable
sources.
This week, President Obama told us that he has a pen and a
phone and that he will use his executive authority to act in 2014 when Congress
stands in his way. (1) This comment prompted House Speaker Boehner
to reply with “We have the Constitution.”
(2) So once again our nation faces a serious
Constitutional crisis.
Our founders drafted our Constitution in the wake of a war
to gain independence from an intrusive tyranny.
The authors of the Declaration of Independence stated in the preamble
their belief in peoples' unalienable, or God given, right to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness. In the
remainder of the Declaration, they went on to list their grievances against the
crown.
After gaining their independence from the crown, they were
careful not to set up a government that would be just as intrusive as the one
they fought against for their independence.
After experimenting with the Articles of Confederation which, void of
any real centralized authority, became weak and was unsustainable, they
convened a Constitutional Convention to draft a new Constitution for our
nation.
The result was a Constitution which did establish a stronger
central government but with controls and limits on its authority. They established three co-equal branches of
government and distributed governmental power evenly among these three branches,
which independently have the power to:
1)
Make laws – Through a bicameral Congress
consisting of a House of Representatives elected by the people in proportion to
population and a Senate originally elected by state legislatures in order to
give state governments a voice in how the federal government should run.
2)
Enforce laws – Through the election of a
president elected indirectly by the people through the Electoral College. They did this to insure no largely populated
state could control the election of the President, thus making smaller states
irrelevant.
3)
Interpret laws – Through a Supreme Court the
justices of which are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate
which again was originally elected by the state legislatures, insuring the
courts did not rule against the interests of the states.
Unfortunately, through the years, especially in the last 100
years, we have seen this separation of powers and checks and balances built
into our constitution virtually eliminated.
President Obama’s statement that he can use his phone to organize his
cronies and his pen to sign executive orders demonstrates his total disregard
in the co-equal branches of government as set up by our founders in the
Constitution. In essence, President
Obama is threatening to establish the executive branch of the government as all-powerful
with the ability to circumvent Congress and the courts to get his agenda implemented. This attempt to set up dictatorial control of
the federal government through the executive branch is precisely what our
founders went to war with England against.
Speaker Boehner was correct in his statement that we have
the Constitution but it is of no use unless he and the other members of the
House stand up against this usurpation of our Constitution and its
establishment of shared power distributed over the three co-equal branches of
government. I therefore urge the Speaker
and all members of Congress to stand against any attempt by this President to
usurp their authority as the law-making branch of our government. I also urge the courts to exercise their
authority and overturn any unconstitutional executive orders this President may
try to place on the American People.
It is not surprising to me that many in our country have
lost all respect and confidence in their government. The majority of the people in our country
still believe in government of the people, by the people, and for the
people. When they hear their president
make unconstitutional statements as he did on January 15, they see a government
with total disregard for the representatives they elected to Congress to
represent them. This is why we must
return to Constitution government as our founders envisioned.
Unfortunately, we may have reached a point where it is
difficult, and maybe even impossible to reverse course through Washington. This is why I fully support the Article 5
state convention process as outlined in the constitution. If you are unfamiliar with how this process
would work, I encourage you to read Mark Levin’s book “The Liberty
Amendments.” In fact, there was already
a preliminary meeting in Mt. Vernon on December 7, 2013 (3)
Any elected official that believes they can do whatever they
want outside of the protection of the Constitution is like someone seeing
something on Google and then believing it is true without checking the
source. President Obama cannot write
legislation just because he does not get his way but must operate within the
constraints of the Constitution he swore to uphold twice when taking the oath
of office. The founders put these
constitutional protections in place to protect the citizens of our country. Without these protections, we risk falling
into a tyranny like we were under when we were governed by the crown. Please join me in supporting the Article 5
movement by using your keyboard, internet, and social media to get the word out
about this movement that will save our country.
1. AP. Obama to Dems: I'll act with or without
Congress. news.yahoo.com. [Online] Yahoo News, January 15, 2014. [Cited:
January 16, 2014.] http://news.yahoo.com/obama-dems-39-ll-act-without-congress-004736977--politics.html.
2. Office of Speaker
Boehner. We Have the Constitutiomn. www.facebook.com. [Online]
Office of Speaker Boehner, January 15, 2014. [Cited: January 16, 2014.]
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=692755007431827&set=a.198587086848624.44436.175082565865743&type=1&theater.
3. Adams, Becket.
CONVENTION OF STATES GAINING STEAM? partiotsbillboard.org. [Online]
Patriots Billboard, December 9, 2013. [Cited: January 17, 2014.] http://patriotsbillboard.org/convention-of-states-gaining-steam/.
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