US Constitution

14th Amendment Celebrates 143rd Anniversary: Time For President Obama To Utilize It To Save The American Economy From Disaster!

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Today in the year 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, arguably the most important amendment other than the first ten (The Bill Of Rights), was adopted and added to the Constitution.

It gave African Americans citizenship, and pledged that no state could deprive anyone of life, liberty, and property, or deny equal protection of the laws. It also provided for the concept that all federal debts were to be paid by the government without any question as to their legitimacy.

Who would think that 143 years later, it is precisely this Section 4 of the 14th Amendment which can, if President Obama invokes it, save the nation from economic disaster by providing for a raising of the debt ceiling, taking away that authority from a reckless, irresponsible Republican majority in the House of Representatives, who as the author writes, still cannot get a majority to take responsibility for past debts that MUST be repaid to keep the good faith and credit of the United States government to bond holders and domestic and foreign investors!

Obama MUST take action, and should not wait any longer!

This is a moment which will define his Presidency in history, and he must assert his executive authority, and to hell with the radical Tea Party anarchists!

Let them try to impeach him, and the nation will arise in anger and throw these damn whackos out of power as equivalent of terrorists against the American people, not concerning themselves with their welfare and security!

These Tea Party radicals are NOT keeping their oath of office, and should be righteously thrown out of office by their ears, and told we are not going to tolerate this lunatic extremism, which has no concern for average Americans, and only speaks for the rich and the powerful forces which financed their gaining power by propagandizing among gullible Americans who have no clue as to the long term damage this radical anarchistic group is perpetrating on us, their victims!

America’s reputation and economic stability hangs in the balance, and we should all say a prayer, even if not religious, that Barack Obama has the courage and the conviction to do the right thing and save us from what might rank as one of the most dangerous moments of crisis in all of American history since independence in 1776!

Time For Reality Check On Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment And Third Party Potential For Success In Presidential Elections

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Unfortunately, many Americans, probably a vast majority, live with a false set of facts about American government, as it stands under the Constitution. There is a major need for a reality check!

Many people, including Republicans in Congress, seem to think that a balanced budget amendment will solve our economic problems, when there is absolutely no chance of that occurring! Any constitutional amendment required a two thirds vote of the House of Representatives, followed by a two thirds vote of the US Senate, and then a majority vote in each of the two houses in three fourths or 38 of the 50 states, with the only exception being Nebraska, which only has a one house or unicameral legislature.

We are not ever going to bring about 290 out of 435 votes in the House of Representatives and 67 out of 100 votes in the Senate for such an amendment! Only 36 proposed amendments have EVER achieved this two thirds vote, and the number of failed amendments is in the hundreds over our history!

But notice, even with 36 amendments making it through the Congress, we have only 27 amendments, telling us that NINE amendments failed to gain a three fourths support of state legislatures. Another way to put it is that IF there is a one vote majority in one of the two houses of the state legislatures against an amendment in just THIRTEEN states at a minimum, the amendment fails to be added to the Constitution.

There is no realistic possibility of a balanced budget amendment EVER making it into the Constitution, no matter what politicians say! And were it to happen, it would create a strait jacket, paralyzing us in a time of economic collapse, war, or natural disaster, no matter what limitations are put into such an amendment. It is time for serious minded people to give up the idea that such an amendment will EVER pass, and instead, take responsibility for the fact that the federal government IS necessary, and that we are all going to have to pay more taxes, whether we like it or not, and that it is PATRIOTIC to pay our fair share, including the super wealthy being thankful for their good fortune, and paying the tax level they used to pay from the 1940s through the 1970s, and certainly at the least, the levels of the Bill Clinton years in the White House!

It is also time for “dreamers”, who have the view that a serious third party movement could lead to the election of a President, to get a reality check as well!

Our electoral college system, which can only be changed by a constitutional amendment, which is not going to happen either, prevents a third party candidate from winning, with Theodore Roosevelt performing the best as a third party candidate of the Progressive Party in 1912, but only winning six states and 88 electoral votes, about a third of what is needed to win the White House. The only reason even he did that well was that he was a former President and extremely popular. Such a scenario will NEVER happen again, particularly with the 22nd Amendment, which limits Presidents to two complete terms in office, something not existing in 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt ran for what would have been a third, but non consecutive term as President.

Even if such a thing could happen, a third party candidate without major party backing would have an impossible situation gaining support to govern effectively, as indeed, independent Governor Jesse Ventura of Minnesota discovered in his term from 1999-2003!

For good or for bad, we are stuck with the two party system, and we will be electing a Democrat or a Republican for the Presidency for the long term future!

So forget the constitutional amendment route for a balanced budget, and ignore the thoughts of a third party movement electing a President, and instead accept the reality of the American future–we need to work within the system and just pick better people for public office, as we always have the right to do by voting and organizing, and stop hating our government, which with its faults, is still essential and necessary in our daily lives, as much as we would wish otherwise in our dreams!

14th Amendment, Section 4: The Constitutional Solution To The National Debt Ceiling Crisis!

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The Republican Party loves to use the Constitution in an abusive way to prove its points and its agenda.

This includes the demagoguery to refuse to agree to any tax increases to deal with the national debt and the debt ceiling!

Well, now, Bruce Bartlett, a former financial adviser and senior policy analyst to President Ronald Reagan, has pointed out that the 14th Amendment, Section 4, solves the issue as it states:

“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”

If that is the case, and many constitutional specialists believe that is so, then the argument is that the President of the United States can decide to so declare after all negotiations have been attempted and failed, and that would resolve the issue, and insure that all pensions and payments would be made no matter what the national debt becomes, rather than the constant threats, politics, and blackmail that the opposition constantly employs!

And the answer is that the American people, including the wealthy among us, will have to face reality that taxes are going to go up, in order to promote economic stability and growth, and that this is the price of keeping our freedom and liberty, to be socially responsible to the needs of a nation of more than 300 million in the early 21st century!

Why Not The Equal Rights Amendment For Women 40 Years After Its Origin?

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The Republican Party has actively been promoting amendment after amendment to the Constitution in the past two years, and the thought has emerged that it is time to re-introduce the failed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, passed through Congress in 1972, reaching 35 states ratification by 1976, and then collapsing, with no more support, and failing of ratification by 1982, three states short of adoption.

Women have seen their fortunes change amazingly these past four decades, and are now the majority of the work force, attending universities at a higher percentage than men, and entering all of the professions in tremendous numbers, with them being the majority in more and more occupations.

Women have been “liberated” from the old controls that religion and conservative values put on them, and there are even many Republican women in the House of Representatives and a few in the US Senate.

So why not promote the adoption of the amendment which would put women into the Constitution directly, for only the second time, after the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote after a 72 year battle in 1920?

Even the arguments used by evangelist Jerry Falwell and conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, among others, no longer have any validity, as if they had justification at the time of the ERA!

These and other critics argued that passage of the ERA would:

1. Promote Lesbian marriage–which now exists in six states and Washington, DC.
2. Advocate Unisex public toilets–which now exist all over the nation in shopping malls and many hotels and other public restroom locations.
3. Allow the involvement in combat situations of women in the military–which now occurs on a regular basis.

With all of the great advancements of woman in the past two generations, this is the time to institutionalize what has happened by laws and by natural evolving over that time!

We should put Republicans on the line for a modern Equal Rights Amendment, make them stand up for human rights for women, at a time when Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin are potential future Presidents! They, the other women in the Republican party in Congress, and the men of the party, need to show that they believe in true EQUALITY for women and have no problem making it a permanent part of the US Constitution, that they claim they revere!

House Republicans Hold Back On Disaster Relief And Emergency Preparedness, Insist On Budget Cuts

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The House Republican leadership. led by Eric Cantor, Majority Leader, is insisting that there be budget cuts to match any increase in spending on disaster relief and emergency preparedness.

This outrage is being perpetrated as the Midwest and the South face the most daunting natural disasters we have ever seen in just the past few months!

The onslaught of hundreds of tornadoes in the past two months, including the most disastrous in Alabama and Missouri, along with the flood crisis faced along the Mississippi River all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, is a national emergency of massive proportions!

When a natural disaster occurs, reaction by first responders, police, firefighters, and paramedics should be unlimited without any consideration of budget costs!

If government cannot provide aid to the needy and the desperate in a time of trauma, then what good is government at all? It is NOT the job of government solely to defend the nation from outside attack and internal man made threats to our national security. It is ALSO to come to the aid of the needy, the poor, and the disadvantaged when a natural disaster occurs, without forcing budget cuts to match the disaster’s costs!

The truth is that there is no way around the fact that tax INCREASES will be necessary, whether the American people want them or not. It is government’s job to do what is “necessary and proper”, for the “common defense and general welfare”, Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, the “elastic clause”!

The Republican Party is showing its true colors in so many ways, but particularly in “blackmailing” the Democrats to force cuts in the midst of a national emergency! How despicable and disgraceful!

Eric Cantor And The Constitution: Back To Government 101 For The House Majority Leader!

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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia has come across over the years as extremely ambitious, intensely partisan to the extreme, and possessing a great level of arrogance in dealing with opponents, and this showed through this past week, when Mr. Cantor suggested that the House of Representatives, controlled by his Republican Party, pass legislation authorizing the enactment of the House spending bill even if the Senate, controlled by the Democrats, failed to agree to the legislation!

Such a move would be patently unconstitutional, and in any case, could not become law without passage by the Senate and the signing of the law by the President, none of which would happen! So maybe Eric Cantor needs to go back to Government 101, and learn the reality that the House cannot act recklessly on its own!

This suggestion is totally a sign of the impatience and arrogance of the House majority, being pressured by the Tea Party freshmen, who want no compromise on the spending for the rest of the present fiscal year, with the House demanding $61 billion in cuts, as compared to the $33 billion acceptable to Senate Democrats and the President!

It seems more and more likely that the Tea Party activists would love to see a government shutdown, and this includes freshmen Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida among others, who are a literal nightmare to their party and to the nation because of their unreasonable and uncompromising nature!

Back To the 19th Century Mentality: Proposed Amendment Would Permit State Nullification Of Federal Laws! Have We Failed To Learn The Meaning Of Our Constitution? :(

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Just as we begin to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the beginnings of the Civil War over the next year, we now see a movement promoted by Congressional Republicans, including future House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, to propose a constitutional amendment that would allow states to overrule any act of Congress, effectively nullification of federal law! 🙁

This battle was fought by Andrew Jackson in the Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833, when he threatened John C. Calhoun and South Carolina with federal military intervention if that state refused to obey the federal tariff law.

It was also being threatened by Zachary Taylor if any state attempted secession during the debate over the Compromise of 1850.

It was also the reaction of Abraham Lincoln when the Southern states seceded from the Union and seized American military property and bases in 1860-1861.

These were three Presidents of different parties, all from Southern slave states of birth, who were ready to uphold the federal government’s authority over the states, and actually led to Lincoln’s actions against the Confederacy during the Civil War.

But now, a century a a half after this issue was supposed to have been resolved by the Northern victory, there is a push on to allow just that–states refusing to obey the federal laws and Constitution and claiming the right to do so! 🙁

If the legislatures of two thirds of the states–34–voted for such a repeal of a federal law, it would not be in effect. So far, 12 states have supported such an amendment being introduced.

Of course, two thirds of the House of Representatives and two thirds of the Senate would have to agree to such an amendment, which is hard to imagine, as it would limit their own power and authority.

Additionally, 38 states, three fourths, would have to ratify such an amendment, and that also seems extremely unlikely, as there are more than 12 states which certainly, in a political sense, would oppose such a concept.

While one cannot be sure of the exact dynamics of which states would be opposed to such an amendment, were it to make it through the House of Representatives and Senate, the likelihood would be that the following states would NOT support such an amendment: Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii.

Thirteen of these seventeen states would be enough to stop such an amendment, and realize that there are other states that might also oppose it, including Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, Montana, Colorado, and New Mexico, which would bring the total to a potential 25.

And also realize, in other states that might be seen as supporting such an amendment, all that would be needed to defeat it is a one vote margin of defeat in one of the two houses of the state legislature.

Another consideration is that such an amendment would allow small states with small populations to have equal influence on such nullification, despite having, in many cases, tiny population totals as compared to large states, so even large states which might be motivated to support such an amendment would not be pleased that small states would have an inequitable influence on repeal of federal laws.

So basically, this is all demagoguery, and a sign that many people do not understand their own Constitution, and the concept that ONLY the national government can speak for the nation through the tortorous process of passing laws through our Congress, and that the state legislatures, many of them incompetent and corrupt on a far greater level than our Congress, have no ability or competence or justification to interfere with what is good for the nation at large,whether they like it or not!

The Constitution And Human Rights: Not Subject To Public Opinion Polls!

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Back in 1947, a survey was done of military personnel, asking them how they felt about integration of whites and African Americans.

Also, they were asked how they felt about Jews and other minorities!

Not surprisingly, a vast majority made clear their Antisemitism and racial hatred! Narrow mindedness and prejudice was very evident!

However, in a courageous act, President Harry Truman went ahead in 1948, and ordered racial integration in the armed forces, whether those in the military liked it or not!

Why was this? Because President Truman knew this was not an issue of how people felt, or what public opinion was! It was a question of human rights under the Constitution of the United States! Truman was not setting out to be popular, but to do what was right to do in the promotion of equality and justice!

Therefore, the recent survey asking how troops felt about the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the military, and therefore the allowance of openly gay and lesbian soldiers as a result, was inappropriate and wrong, as it is not the issue of how military personnel feel! It is the issue of human rights, which should not be subject to a vote of the people!

This has been mentioned in an earlier entry on this blog, but it is being brought up again, upon the news that an openly gay soldier, Lieutenant Dan Choi, has been removed from the military because he is gay and said so publicly! This is happening to many others just at the time when the policy might be changing!

This is a miscarriage of justice and should not be happening, but it is, and it is disappointing that it is taking so long to bring about the end of this discriminatory policy, which forces talented and skilled soldiers out of the military, simply because of their sexuality! 🙁

Again, it should not matter what public opinion is on this matter, any more than gay marriage and adoption should not be denied, no matter what people think! These are human rights, and public opinion cannot stand in the way of a person’s basic human rights!