Holding Congress accountable with a constitutional panel

By JR Dieckmann

When congress was established by the Constitution in 1776, it was expected that responsible and honorable men would be elected to serve their country in the best interests of the people. That is no longer the case. Two main problems are responsible for this.

Although we still have a few honorable men and women serving the best interests of the country and the people, we also have far too many individuals in congress devoted more to their own special interests and political careers. Someone recently said the words "career" and "politician" should never be connected together. I couldn't agree more.

In order to get themselves re-elected, politicians have taken up the practice of using federal taxpayers' money to fund special interest projects within their own state or congressional district — projects that should be funded by state and local governments, not by federal taxes. They use our money to buy themselves votes, and the federal government uses this money as leverage to control the states.

To curry favor with their constituents, politicians also propose and support federal laws and projects which have no foundation or authorization in the Constitution and which result in trillions of dollars of federal spending to be paid for in greater debt for everyone, and higher taxes for half of the working population who actually pay federal income tax.

The fact that over 40% of working Americans don't pay any federal income tax is a problem in itself — in that they will always vote for government entitlements and tax increases on wage earners as long as it doesn't cost them anything.

For this reason it is essential that all earned income be taxed or none at all should be taxed. This 40% plus of wage earners might be more concerned about government spending if they had to help pay for it. They would be more prone to vote for responsible custodians of the taxpayers' money. This is the argument in favor of the "fair tax" proposal. Obviously, this current congressional majority isn't interested in seeing their lower income voters switch to the other side of the political fence.

The other problem is that the Constitution grants power to congress to be both lawmakers and holders of the federal purse strings. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law..., says Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution. This is another case of the fox guarding the henhouse.

In Section 8 of Article I it specifies the specific things the congress may use public monies for. This is known as "the Enumerated Powers." The congress no longer respects these constructional limits on the use of public money, and these elected officials feel they can use it for anything they want to — simply by passing a law to authorize the spending. Since this has become accepted operating practice by those in congress who have not only become corrupted themselves, but have corrupted the meaning and intent of the Constitution, we should consider other means of holding congress accountable to the Constitution.

The balance and separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government was intended to prevent these excesses from happening as the president would have to approve any laws proposed by congress.

But when we have a president and majority members of congress who are all in the same cabal and pursuing the same unconstitutional agenda, then the checks and balances of government no longer work. This current "president," unfortunately, has no more understanding of, or respect for the Constitution than does the majority in congress.

Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) has repeatedly introduced the "Enumerated Powers Act" which would require Members of Congress to include an explicit statement of Constitutional authority into each bill that is introduced. It would hold Congress accountable for its actions.

"According to the Tenth Amendment, the national government cannot expand its legislative authority into areas reserved to the States or the people," said Shadegg. "It is a well-known fact that the size and scope of the federal government has exploded since the New Deal. Congress continues to operate without Constitutional restraint, creating costly and ineffective programs and blatantly ignoring the principles of federalism."

Congress has never brought this proposal to a vote, nor do they ever intend to. It would force them to respect and obey the Constitution that created them in the first place. It would hold them accountable to the Constitution and to the people they are supposed to represent and force them to become responsible custodians of the people's money.

Since members of congress refuse to be ethical and responsible to the people, a new approach is now needed. What we need is a constitutional buffer between the congress and the treasury — an independent agency of constitutional lawyers whose job it would be to determine the constitutionality of all congressional appropriations. This would create a constitutional window between congress and the federal treasury.

This non-partisan panel could be made up of perhaps 10 persons, 5 Republicans and 5 Democrats, and would require not just a majority, but unanimous consent before any money is drawn from the treasury. Obviously, these panel members could not be appointed from the congress for obvious reasons. They must be independent of congress.

One idea might be to incorporate this panel into the Congressional Budget Office since they already pick apart and analyze these bills anyway, and are a nonpartisan group. A constitutional panel within the CBO could return to congress a statement identifying the constitutional authorization for the funds to be drawn from the treasury or no such funds may be drawn.

Another idea might be to require the Treasury Department to confirm constitutional authorization before releasing any monies to the congress. The constitutional panel could be created within the Treasury Department.

The Treasury Department is bound to follow the Constitution every bit as much as congress is. If the treasury releases money not authorized by the Constitution then they are just as guilty of grand theft as the congress is.

The Treasury Department should reject any requests from congress for funds that are not accompanied by a reference to the specific article and clause in the Constitution that authorizes congress to use the money for the stated purpose.

Obviously, none of this can happen while the current band of socialists, Marxists, and communists are in control of the congress because the congress would have to authorize the panel.

Corruption runs rampant throughout this government and congress both morally and constitutionally. Self interests and political agendas are given the highest priority regardless of the harm they do to our republic. Elected officials have trashed their oath of office with constant violations of the Constitution that they swore to defend and protect.

In the House of Representatives, the members are concerned with representing their states and districts. In the Senate, members should be more concerned with serving the best interests of the nation as a whole, not just their state constituents. As it now stands, no one is representing the best interests of the country.

We can only achieve responsible and constitutional government when conservative constitutionalists dominate the congress and return the respect to our country and its people that the Constitution demands.

If this does not happen over the period of the next two elections, then our constitutional republic is gone forever, along with our individual freedom and liberty. We must not let this happen, or the citizens of America will be returned to bondage and enslaved to an oppressive government forever.

© JR Dieckmann