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Judging by their writings, and the Constitution they crafted, it's fairly clear the Founding Fathers wanted a limited federal government. As George Washington noted, "The habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres…" While Thomas Jefferson once observed, "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." The Fathers ingrained this thinking into our Constitution. In fact, Article I of the U.S. Constitution limits the federal government to 17 specific powers — such as coining money, maintaining armed forces, and facilitating commerce through patent and bankruptcy regulation. The 10th Amendment reaffirmed that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or the people." This principle, the "Enumerated Powers Doctrine," guided the scope and size of the federal government until the 1930s, when court decisions centered around the New Deal eroded its effectiveness. The 10th Amendment was meant to check the powers and scope of the federal government, limiting it to the modest duties outlined in the Enumerated Powers. Unfortunately for the Founders and taxpayers, modern-day courts have invented laughable loopholes in the 10th Amendment. They've applied the Commerce Clause (which asserts federal primacy over interstate finances) to any and all types of federal spending while simultaneously applying the Equal Protection clause and other parts of the Constitution to claim a bigger role for Washington. But what if the federal courts actually upheld the 10th Amendment? What would our federal government look like? In an effort to answer this question, I conducted a study for the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) listing what we believe to be the federal spending consistent with the Enumerated Powers of the Constitution. Below is a listing of the generic area of spending, its function number in the federal budget, and the amount the government spent in that area in Fiscal Year 2001: Area of Spending Function # Dollars (in billions) National Defense
50 308.5 Total Spending Plus
Net Interest Payments of Current Debt $716.3 Billion Total Amount Government Actually Spent in FY 01 $1.86 Trillion
About the same time the federal government began ignoring the 10th Amendment, it passed the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. Adopted by Congress on July 12, 1909 and ratified in February of 1913, it fundamentally transformed the balance of power between the federal government and the people. Prior to its ratification, federal income taxes had been declared unconstitutional because Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution clearly states that no direct tax "shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken." In other words, the Founding Fathers didn't want a federal income tax. They realized that granting the federal government the gift of income taxation would give it the means to extend all of its powers far beyond what they had envisioned, and with disastrous consequences. At first, the threat to most seemed small. The original income tax passed by Congress applied to just two percent of the labor force and the top marginal rate was a fairly reasonable seven percent. But that soon changed. In 1916, the federal government collected approximately $68 million in individual income taxes. However, Washington's hunger for more revenue soon became voracious. By 1929, federal income-tax revenues had grown to nearly $1.1 billion. This year the personal income tax will rake in about $950 billion. It didn't take Washington long to realize that its new-found wealth gave it the opportunity to expand its power and influence through the growth of government. Elected officials began expanding the role of the federal government almost immediately. As a result, legislative activity in Congress began to skyrocket. For example, between April of 1911 and March of 1913, Congress passed a total of 457 acts. Less than two decades later, that number had exploded. Between December of 1927 and March of 1929, a total of 1,037 acts were passed by Congress. The predictable, and unfortunate, result of Washington's new activist persona was a dramatic increase in federal spending. For example, in 1913 the federal government spent a total of $714 million. By 1929, the feds were spending more than $3.1 billion a year. Meanwhile, the number of federal employees grew from 396,494 in 1913 to 601,319 by 1930. Federal employment ballooned to 1,042,420 persons by 1940 following FDR's implementation of the New Deal, and to nearly 3 million persons by 1970 after Johnson imposed his Great Society. Last year the federal government collected $1.99 trillion in total receipts, had $1.86 trillion in total outlays, employed nearly 3 million people and involved itself in every issue in America from A to Z. There are many reasons to celebrate our nation's birthday this year, but adherence to the Founders' vision of a limited federal government is not one of them, and that's too bad. — Eric V. Schlecht is director of congressional relations for the National Taxpayers Union.
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t's
4th of July week and Americans all across the country are celebrating
our independence from Britain, the Founding Fathers, and their vision
of democracy and limited government. If the Founders were alive today,
however, it's doubtful that they would recognize, or approve of, the scope
and size of the federal government. The utter disregard for the 10th Amendment
to the Constitution and the ratification of the 16th Amendment are largely
to blame for this phenomenon.
Includes
only capital spending on federal highway outlays, and air and water transportation
spending.