USAID was a start. Now let's get serious
The ongoing discussions on closing Dept of Ed, shuttering the USAID laundry, etc., is tiresome. And useless. These devolve into left-right discussions of how the kids need to be educated or fed in inner cities or in Lagos, and I don’t really care. Nor should you.
I don’t even care if it - whatever the “it” du jour is – is a “good idea. Nor should you.
The “our democracy,” that the preeners on the left pretend to be “saving” (from their own depredations, truth be told) that actually is a “republic of limited powers,” contemplates essentially none of what we have come to refer to as the “Swamp.” And the point in arguing with lefties (and RINOs) who don’t even understand our form of government escapes one entirely.
What is most disheartening in the entire bipartisan bloviation is that the DOGE crew – those tasked specifically with rooting-out the nonsense of the Deep State – are not making the argument that matters: the federal government has no authority for this stuff.
Rather than opining – uselessly – on why a particular fed spend is a good idea, or must be done “for the children,” or to salve needy AWFL guilt trips, how about we just look at what the federal government is allowed to do, the “limited powers” the several states delegated to the federal government when those states created the feds to do specific things for the states?
Per the charter by which the country was created, whether today we think something is or is not a “good idea” is entirely beside the point. Whether the authority for specific actions is or is not delegated to the feds is the only point: To paraphrase Bill Clinton, “It’s the enumerated powers, Stupid.”
Here’s the list, straight from Article 1, Section 8:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And
Do you see “Redistribution of American tax dollars overseas” on that list? No? Foreign aid is not a Constitutional authority given to the feds by the states. It’s illegal. So why are we doing it? Why are we allowing the feds to tax us for something the feds are not allowed to do?
Do you see “education” on that list? No? Ditto. Close the Department as having no Constitutional foundation. No authority exists for the federal government to be involved in education. Period.
But wait – there’s more.
“General Police Powers” were NOT delegated to the feds, but are reserved powers kept by the several States. Can you think of federal police organizations? Say, the FBI? ATF? These both are unconstitutional usurpations of State authority and violations of the Tenth Amendment. So why are we taxing ourselves to pay for them, and allowing them to be weaponized against us?
No reason. So let’s stop. Close them both down.
Enter the DOGE
The kid geniuses at DOGE certainly could train-up an AI query to run-through all federal legislation and regulation databases and easily identify every violation of the enumerated powers. It is these violations that are the swamp.
Identify them. EO them out of existence.
The feds have no authority for them, no authority to tax us to pay for them, no authority to hire anyone to engage in them.
Shut them down as the unconstitutional usurpations they are.
There is one way to drain the swamp: Enforce the Constitution.
All else is just meandering around the periphery of the Swamp.
Drain it.