Let's look under hood of Constitution

Maybe it's me. I could just be missing something in the Constitution that authorizes the federal government to run private businesses or to enter into business on its own.

So if anyone knows how the president of the United States got the power to tell the president of General Motors that he was fired (or more politely, that he must resign), please e-mail me.

The president later ordered Chrysler to merge with an Italian corporation, Fiat, and promised that the government of the United States would back both Chrysler and GM car warranties. Just what we need: A government that sells used cars. I am eagerly awaiting the exact provisions in the Constitution that give the federal government the power to dictate business policy to individual corporations. Short of seeing them, I will assume our new busybody government has gone rogue.

The evidence is everywhere. And it didn't start with President Obama and the Democratic Congress, not by a long shot, but it has gotten worse under them. Could you tell me, for instance, how it is that Congress can be considering a bill to establish a Green Bank that would be a wholly owned corporation of the United States intended to lend money to projects that promote or develop clean energy or renewable energy? I missed that provision in the Constitution, too.

I see whereby the Congress has the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes." That's vague enough to cover a multitude of congressional sins, but it doesn't give the president any authority at all.

Of course, the president doesn't have a whole lot of authority in any case. The Constitution grants him the power to be commander in chief, to make treaties (with the advice and consent of the Senate) and to appoint ambassadors, judges and other officers (also with the consent of the Senate). Not a thing in there about taking over private corporations.

It seems pretty clear from studying the actual document (the Constitution that he is sworn to "preserve, protect and defend") that the president's main function is as the "executive" officer, the factotum who carries out the will of Congress and who 'shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

Of course, in Article II, Section 3, it does also establish that the president 'shall … recommend to [the Congress'] consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient," but it is thus clear that the power to enact such measures resides with the people's Congress and not with the president.

Moreover, Congress's powers are strictly delimited by the same Constitution under Article I, Sections 8 and 9. The aforementioned commerce clause regulating commerce "among the several states' was clearly not intended by the Founding Fathers to allow Congress to run General Motors or any other business. It was most likely intended to ensure that the sovereign states not engage in predatory trade practices with each other and to provide the federal government the power to protect the states from one another.

Unfortunately, for the past 100 years, the courts have more and more interpreted the Constitution as a grab bag of powers for Congress, the president and the judiciary. Thus we reach the point today where hardly an objection is heard when the president and his treasury secretary announce that they can set salaries for corporate executives and even take over companies whenever they feel it prudent to do so.

It is up to the people of the United States to stand up for themselves. After all, the Ninth Amendment and 10th Amendment reserve and guarantee the people and their state governments all the powers that are not expressly granted to the federal government.

That's why people across the country, including most recently this weekend in Kalispell, have held Tea Parties to express their outrage over the federal government sticking its nose where it doesn't belong and putting its hand in your wallet and mine. Congress and the president apparently envision a country where they control every sector of the economy, and nearly every sector of our private lives. The stimulus bill and the proposed 10-year budget are in essence a federal down payment on ownership of our American soul. Is yours for sale?

Of course, some people would note that the government has gotten into business before. After all, the federal government (or its proxy) runs the post office in competition with private businesses, right?

True enough, but that is one case where the government (Congress in particular) is specifically authorized by the Constitution to do just that - to "establish post offices and post roads." So Federal Express has no complaint, nor do we citizens for the money that Congress spends in this endeavor. It is legal and aboveboard.

But if anyone can point out any other verbiage in the Constitution that allows the Congress or the president to establish businesses to be run at taxpayer expense, or even to control private industries (which is far different than regulating them), then I will happily admit that I am wrong. Perhaps, I missed it the first couple of hundred times through the document.

Of course, there was the case of Prohibition, when the federal government outlawed an entire industry involving "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors." That was pretty heavy-handed, but it was also legal. After all, the Constitution was specifically amended to establish the power.

Again, you can't say it is unconstitutional if it is in the Constitution. And if anyone could successfully go through the same amendment process to give the president power to fire corporate CEOs, then I would get right behind the practice and say "the people have spoken."

But that is not the case.

This is one more in a growing list of offenses of the Congress and president against the people of the United States. If it were not that the people have so little power left, you would almost call it a power grab.

n Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake and writes a weekly column. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com