The Blame Game

I read an interesting article yesterday in Investor's Business Daily by Walter Williams. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.^[1] The article, entitled "Fault Congress, Not President, For Federal Budget Problems", got me thinking.

We are so quick to blame the President for everything when the powers of the President outlined in the U.S. Constitution are rather slim. Sometimes I think we forget we have a Constitution! It is convenient to forget the rules when you're losing the game.

The Constitution very clearly states that Congress has the power to " lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States". As much as I hate to admit it, I was one of those ignorant people that went around espousing that Bill Clinton balanced the budget and that George W. Bush got us into debt. The real people to credit and blame are Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi, respectively. My apologies to Mr. Williams and I would like to thank him for the reminder.

You cannot imagine how it pains me to admit that I can no longer blame ol' Georgy for the financial problems our country is faced with today. There's plenty more I can blame him for, and rightly so though, so I will survive. My personal political views aside, I am writing this article to simply inform those that don't read Investor's Business Daily of a) the U.S. Constitution (you should read it sometime) and b) that Barack Obama is NOT to blame for your tax bill nor is he to blame for the debt that we owe to China.

You can say that Obama might be slow to react and that he over thinks things. This sometimes makes him appear weak but wouldn't you rather be weak and right than strong and wrong?

Powers of Congress:^[2]
1 - raise or lower taxes for the good of the nation
2 - borrow money from other countries
3 - regulate commerce with other countries
4 - print money and set the value of the money
5 - punish counterfeiters
6 - establish post offices
7 - copyright laws
8 - to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court
9 - punish pirates that commit felonies on the high seas
10 - declare war and make rules concerning captures on land and at sea (think Iraq war, Guantanamo, etc)
11 - to raise and support armies but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for longer than two years
12 - provide and maintain a navy
13 - make rules for the government and regulation for the land and naval forces
14 - to call in the Militia (National Guard) to prevent invasions
15 - organize, arm and discipline the Militia

Amendment 16 clarifies that Congress is given the power to collect income tax.

1. http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/
2. http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#A1Sec8