"To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted." — Alexander Hamilton
A few days ago Vice President Biden told reporters that Romney’s business experience while at Bain Capital did not qualify him to be the president of the United States. According to a report in the Boston Globe Biden stated:
“The vice president said making money for investors is fine, but “the president has a different job.’’ He said it is to ensure that all companies can make a profit, and to guard against that coming at the expense of everyone else.”
In essence, according to Biden, the job of the president is to insure equality of results and “fairness.” This seems to be one of the themes of the Obama’s reelection campaign and you will see this theme played over and over again during the next few months by the Obama surrogates.
Biden and the Democrats are dead wrong on this issue. The duties, responsibilities, and powers of the president are clearly stated in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution:
“The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.”
Nowhere in Article II, Section 2, or anywhere else in the Constitution or the thinking of the framers as expressed in the Federal Papers, is there any mention of the granting powers to he president to insure fairness, create jobs, or insure equality of results. This is purely a fiction created over the past 100 years by the progressive left and their Marxist cohorts.
This myth was promoted in 1944 in Franklin Roosevelt’s Annual Message to Congress where he urged a new bill of rights:
“It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth- is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our Nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. "Necessitous men are not free men." People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.”
This was the beginning of the statists’ administrative state to be managed by the masterminds of a leviathan government and academia.
Since 1944 we have drifted further and further away from the constraints of the Constitution as we look more and more to the president and government to solve our individual problems.
One of the grievances expressed in our Declaration of Independence states:
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”
This is exactly what is happening in our nation today at both the federal and state level. Swarms of agents from the EPA, FDA, HHS, Department of Education, Department of Energy, and myriad of alphabet soup agencies. All of these agencies were created in law and therefore the executive has been granted the power to appoint the officers and agents, but not the power to create new laws creating new agencies for the social benefit of the people. This is Congress’s prerogative, something they have gone overboard with.
While the progressives and Democrats believe that have the power to promote “fairness”, jobs and the equality of results in fact they have no such power. The only jobs he executive can create are government jobs, of which he has done plenty of. The only way a president can create jobs in the private sector is to get rid of regulations and the swarms of agents that are standing in the way of the private sector.
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