"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."-- James Madison, in response to the 1792 congressional appropriation of $15,000 to assist some French refugees.
"I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity," adding that to approve such spending, "would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded."-- Franklin Pierce, after he vetoed a bill in 1854 to help the mentally ill
"I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds . . . I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution." -- Grover Cleveland, after he vetoed an appropriation in 1887 to help drought-stricken counties in Texas
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government. And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility." -- George W. Bush
Well, well, well, George to the rescue. I can't help but feel pangs of sorrow and disappointment that George did not take the opportunity to instruct the media of the true calling of a federal government. How is it we've come this far that when we have a hurricane in Louisiana, people fold their arms and look to Washington for the solution. So now we have George going on the biggest ego trip since FDR, armed with nary a hint of the fundamental flaws of FEMA. After 5 years of piling bureacracy on top of bureacracy, we can't even find FEMA on the org chart, much less give it a job description.
The sad thing is that the dialog is centering on what went wrong, when what really went wrong was the persistent expectation that the federal government should even be involved. FEMA is as unconstitutional as any organization in government today. The stupid part is that people will continue to live below sea level, on fault lines, in forest fires, and in every conceivable harm's way when they know someone else is perfectly willing to build them a new home when the worst comes. It's like federally subsidized insurance for the chronically stupid.
Compassionate Conservatism, I have finally ascertained, truly sucks. The biggest handout since LBJ is at our door, and "W" is dealing out the debit cards.
I believe we are now seeing what will eventually turn Washington back to the Democrats, and this time it won't take a Perot to do it.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Friday, September 09, 2005
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