A "Three Steps To Recovery Program"

These are the powers of the government as described by the Constitution of the United States:

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 are ALL the powers of the Government. There are no other powers of the US Government that are within the Constitution of the US. Thus any powers that they describe for themselves that are not within the above Article 1 Section VIII of the United States Constitution are, by definition, UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

It should be painfully evident that Obama Care does NOT fit within this definition nor is it covered in ANY of the amendments to the Constitution.

1) In the future, all laws that are proposed before the House of Representatives or before the Senate of the United States should be measured against this ruler. If they fail to meed the definition they should be discarded WITHOUT A VOTE. There is no need to vote on an UNCONSTITUTIONAL LAW. If it is unconstitutional and is passed on then the Supreme Court will throw it out....hopefully....but a lot of time and effort went into a useless exercise.

2) In the future all laws that are already "on the books" should be, also, measured and if found wanting, they should be removed from the body of the law. Admittedly, this second job will be a bit harder. It will take years and dedication and must be done slowly as you cannot just stop "cold turkey" from a drug, money, without huge headaches. It will take time and dedication to re craft our government back into a Constitutional government.

3) To this end we must elect dedicated public servants into the legislative bodies. These must be men and women with experience and capabilities not always found easily among the general public. It is for this reason that I suggest that "Term Limits" as we often describe them are not appropriate....at least until this job is done. Term Limits can be exercised by our vote. If they do wrong, vote them out.

But there is a way to limit the power of the long term politicians that often leads to corruption without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We need to get rid of the political corruption, but some of the men we need to retain for their talents.

Straight term limits just throws out the good with the bad. However limiting power within the structure, by mandating that all committee chairmen be elected by the members of the committee and that no chairman may chair for more than two sessions PERIOD, will reign in the long term power of Congressmen and Senators.



I propose an amendment to the Constitution that mandates, all the above, three steps to recovery. A "Three Steps to Recovery Program"

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Jim Isbell
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