The Constitution of the United States

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 borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an 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 establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
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
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

The Bill of Rights
Amendment X
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 to the people.

In Article 8 the Founding Fathers designated exactly what the federal government's responsibilities were. If I count correctly there are 18 duties. Just 2 years later they felt it necessary to expand on this article by adding the 10th Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment specfically prohibits the Federal government from taking to itself any other powers. ALL other powers and duties belong to the indvidual states or to the people. The Founding Fathers had a great fear of too strong a Central Government. They strove valiantly to limit its power.

A careful reading will show that they did not envision a Federal Department of Education, a Social Security Administration, Medicare, Medicaid, or Universal Health Care. There is no power given by the Constitution to create these or any similar entities. They can effect tort reform, interstate competition.

How have we come to the state we are in? We have been slothful, greedy, perhaps even arrogant in voting for those who would give to us the things we are "entitled" to. We have abrogated our personal agency, our freedom of choice for what we consider to be 'security' in a difficult world. We have denied our personal responsibility and allowed others to lead us according to their will and desire. "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it to tyranny." Thomas Jefferson. And we just sit back and watch it happen.

It may already be too late but we can no longer sit back or hide our heads in the sand, pretending that it won't affect us. We cannot let it go any further. Now is the time for all free people of the United States to stand and be counted on the side of the Cause of Liberty. On the side of the Constitution. And on the side of God. Maybe, just maybe, we can stop it from going any farther along the road to enslavement.

What are You going to do about it?