20 January 2010
By Jacob G. Hornberger In my blog last Friday (Dec. 15), I made the point
that U.S. government compassion for Haiti wasn’t
compassion at all, given that the money is taken by
force by the IRS and distributed by federal
politicians and bureaucrats who didn’t earn it. I
pointed out that no one, including the president, the
members of Congress, IRS agents, federal bureaucrats,
the military, the taxpayers, or the citizenry could be
considered caring or compassionate, in a moral or
religious sense, given that the process involves the
forcible taking and distribution of people’s money.
The only thing that matters, in the eyes of God and in
a moral sense, is when people help others on a purely
voluntary basis. Finally, I observed that a truly free
society is one in which people are free to do what
they want with their own money, including saying no in
response to a request for financial assistance from
people in need. But there’s another important factor that we should
consider when it comes to the hundreds of millions of
dollars in federal aid that President Obama and his
cohorts are promising to distribute to Haiti. That’s
the factor of illegality. The giving of U.S. taxpayer
money to foreigners is not authorized by the U.S.
Constitution, which is the law that we the people have
imposed on federal officials. When the Framers called the government into
existence, it was under the understanding that, unlike
most foreign governments, this government would not
have unlimited power to do whatever it wanted.
Instead, this government’s powers would be limited to
those enumerated in the Constitution. Does the Constitution grant the power, either to
the president or Congress, to send military and
financial aid to the people of Haiti or any other
nation that suffers a natural disaster? It does not. One searches the Constitution in vain
for a grant of such power. This point was emphasized by President Grover
Cleveland, a Democrat, who vetoed a bill passed by
Congress that provided for federal aid to Texas
farmers who were suffering from a severe drought. This
is what Cleveland stated in his
veto message: “I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in
the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power
and duty of the general government ought to be
extended to the relief of individual suffering which
is in no manner properly related to the public service
or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the
limited mission of this power and duty should, I
think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the
lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the
people support the government, the government should
not support the people. Cleveland also made an important point about the
American private sector: “The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can
always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens
in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite
lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases
encourages the expectation of paternal care on the
part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of
our national character, while it prevents the
indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment
and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common
brotherhood.” This point regarding illegality was also made by
Congressman Davy Crockett, who, in response to a
congressional attempt to provide financial assistance
to the widow of a distinguished naval officer,
stated: “I will not go into an argument to prove that
Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an
act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it.
We have the right, as individuals, to give away as
much of our own money as we please in charity; but as
members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate
a dollar of the public money.” How unfortunate that we now live in an era in which
federal politicians and bureaucrats do whatever they
want, including donating taxpayer money to their
heart’s content, then congratulating themselves for
how good and caring they are, and, of course, ignoring
the very law that they purportedly swear to preserve,
protect, and defend. Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The
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