28th Amendment: Enumerated only

The primary crack in our republic’s foundation of liberty has been caused by the misinterpretation one of our constitution’s central passages.

Some claim part of Article I, Section 8 grants Congress powers it isn’t expressly granted.

These people claim the Taxing and Spending Clause empowers Congress to pass any bills it deems beneficial, based on the part that reads, “Congress shall have the power To...provide for the...general Welfare.”

This interpretation is erroneous, as the Cato Institute’s Roger Pilon has argued. “Were [this clause meant to authorize] Congress to tax and spend for the general welfare...Congress would have been granted all but unlimited power and the enumeration of other powers would have been to no purpose. Thus, the passage must be read as permitting spending only for enumerated ends.”

Ever since Section 8 was first interpreted as doing more than exhaustively enumerating Congress’ powers, the Constitution has been compromised.

What was intended to be a government of strictly limited powers devoted almost exclusively to protecting liberty has become one involved in a startlingly wide array of activities in which no government should meddle.

In order to begin repairing our republic’s foundation, we need a constitutional amendment that erases any ambiguity in the Taxing and Spending Clause and abolishes once and for all the notion that Congress wields any power not expressly granted to it by the Constitution.


 E-mail: jarlower@indiana.edu