Reclaim the Constitution or else it's adios to the republic

It's gotten to the point where the federal government can do whatever it wants, and that is just plain scary.

Last week, you could turn west to California, east to Washington, D.C., or stop in the middle at Detroit to find numerous examples of federal power gone so far out-of-whack that it can no longer rightly be called government but should be recognized for what it is - assisted suicide.

In Detroit, it came to light that the White House had threatened to harm creditors of Chrysler if they did not buckle under and accept a pennies-on-the-dollar settlement from the troubled automaker. Columnist Michael Barone called this the "first episode of Gangster Government," and pointed out that the shakedown worked. One of the bondholder firms, Perella Weinberg, did buckle under. They wound up accepting 33 cents on the dollar for their secured debts, while the Obama administration guaranteed 50 cents on the dollar to the United Auto Workers union for their unsecured debts.

That's just the beginning. Tim Hubbard, the president of the Montana Auto Dealers Association, wrote an impassioned plea for small-town American to rise up and stop the president's order that General Motors and Chrysler should rapidly reduce their dealer networks throughout the country.

"The President's Auto Task Force is effectively mandating the largest Main Street layoff in the history of America - almost 190,000 Americans will lose their jobs and most of these will be on Main Streets all across the country," wrote Hubbard. "The current policy of the Auto Task Force will increase unemployment, increase the ranks of the uninsured, and create more potentially toxic assets for the financial sector."

No problem, right? The federal government can do whatever it wants. That's the way it's always been.

Umm, not exactly. Listen to James Madison, fourth president of the United States, in the Federalist Papers, from Jan. 26, 1788, prior even to the adoption of the Constitution:

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will for the most part be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties and properties of the people; and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

There are indeed only 20 powers granted to Congress in Article I, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution, and monkeying around with car dealerships in Montana is not one of them. Madison notes that "the regulation of commerce," as enumerated by the Constitution, "is a new power," but then with an unfortunate lack of foresight, dismisses concerns about it because "that seems to be an addition which few oppose, and from which no apprehensions are entertained."

Well, apprehensions are being entertained now, and plenty of them.

The "commerce clause" in the Constitution -- which grants Congress the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes' - has been used to justify all manner of federal interference in people's day-to-day lives. Rest assured, originally it was intended only to provide oversight of the individual states imposing legislative restrictions on each other concerning commerce. It was not meant to give Congress, let alone the president, the power to take over car manufacturers or banks.

Speaking of banks, it would be useful if all Americans - in particular the president, senators, congressmen and judges - were to revisit the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, who declared flatly that Congress ought not be in the business of owning a bank. But yet today, the U.S. government finds itself in the peculiar position of being a major shareholder in not just one, but numerous financial institutions.

For what purpose? Can this be considered regulation of commerce?

Hardly, for as Jefferson notes, "to erect a bank, and to regulate commerce, are very different acts." Likewise, although the current case is not about the establishment of a national bank, the same concern arises that Jefferson expressed in 1791, namely that the government's action would produce a "considerable advantage to trade" and thus tilt the level playing field that merchants and the public ought to expect.

Again, it's all about the Constitution.

As Jefferson wrote, "I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the U.S. by the Constitution, not prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people' [a paraphrase of the 10th Amendment]. To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition."

Perhaps, that "boundless field of power" can best be seen today in the bank bailout, but it also has implications in the stimulus bill, whereby the federal government spent billions of dollars it doesn't have in an apparent quest to: A) end the recession, B) increase the power it already holds over all aspects of life in America; C) increase the dependency of the people on their government; or D) enrich certain sectors of the public at the expense of others.

Most recently, the Obama administration (not to be confused with the equally power-crazed but fortunately feckless Bush administration) has threatened to bankrupt the state of California by withholding stimulus dollars that had previously been promised unless the state gives in to union demands for higher wages. California, in case you didn't know, has a deficit of more than $40 billion and tried to save a skimpy $74 million by imposing wage cuts on unionized home health-care workers.

The lesson here from Washington is the same as the one in Detroit: Don't mess with unions!

And don't even begin to think that the 'sovereign state" of California has any real sovereignty. That vanished a long-time ago. We live in a feudal system now where the states must swear their fealty to the lords of the Congress, who must in turn pay homage to the king of the White House. As for the rest of us, we are but lowly vassals or serfs. Do as you are bidden, and all will go well for you. Buck the system, and you could wind up under the bus.

Heck, look at the many banks that got conned into taking bailout money from the federal government. For the past several months, they have been trying to give it back so they can avoid intrusive, dictatorial regulation by the White House, but most of them have been stymied. Is this because the government intends to hold on to their newfound assets? Or just their awful power?

And just how dangerous is it when banks and government get together? Again, we turn to the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson for perspective. He was worried about the national bank that was established by Congress, but it is obvious he had a larger, principled concern as well:

"I sincerely believe… that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity in the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

"Spending money to be paid by posterity in the name of funding" - does that sound familiar? Call it a 'stimulus' or a "bailout" if you wish, but a swindle by any other name still promises to hurt our "futurity on a large scale."

There is almost certainly only one solution - reclaiming the Constitution as it was originally written. But short of that impossible dream, we can lament the national suicide first supposedly foretold by Ben Franklin: "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."

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