SECTION 8

Most people have never read, let alone understood, the Constitution of the United States of America. They find it boring and unnecessary in their lives.

What they don't understand is that it is the "rule book" for the government and for American life in general.

It is a unique document, in that it does not, for the most part, give us a list of things government can do but what it cannot do to us.

One very interesting section is Section 8 of Article 1, which gives a job description of congress (Congress means the House of Representatives and the Senate).

Section 8.

The Congress shall have 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; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

These days we have a congress (House and Senate) that try to use the "general welfare" clause to do anything it wants to do "for the good of the people."

"This clause, called the General Welfare Clause or the Spending Power Clause, does not grant Congress the power to legislate for the general welfare of the country; that is a power reserved to the states..." (The Free Dictionary-Legal Dictionary).

There are two questions regarding congress' current attempt to impose health care on all U.S. citizens:

One: If health care is a "right," where did that right come from and why was it not recognized from the beginning of time and by the majority of countries until relatively recently?

Two: Where does congress get the idea that it has the power to force health care on the citizens?

Is any branch of government allowed to arbitrarily establish "rights?"

Is not the Constitution itself adequate to guarantee our freedoms? Do we need congress to busy themselves modifying, usurping and denying our liberties?

If you would like "nutshell" explanations of the Constitution, there is a great place to read them. It's: U.S. Constitution Online. Check it out, it's very interesting.