Walter Williams
Professor of Economics, George Mason University
We expect our government to do many things for us. Some of these things, however, violate both the letter and the spirit of our Constitution, and also have a very high price tag which will prove devastating to future generations of Americans. Renowned economist, controversial author and syndicated columnist Professor Walter E. Williams of George Mason University makes a compelling case for a return to the constitutional limits on government.
Do Americans Respect Our Constitution Excerpt
Each year since 2004, on September 17th, we commemorate the September 17, 1787 signing of the United States Constitution by thirty-nine American statesmen. Legislation creating Constitution Day was fathered by Senator Robert Byrd and requires federal agencies, and every school that receives federal funds, including universities, to have some kind of educational program on the Constitution.
I cannot think of legislation that makes greater mockery of the Constitution, or a more constitutionally odious person to father it – Senator Byrd, a person who is known as, and proudly wears the label, A King of Pork.
Let’s examine just a few statements by the framers, and some of their successors, to see just how much faith and allegiance today’s Americans give to the U.S. Constitution.
James Madison is acknowledged as the father of the constitution. Surely he would know what the Constitution permits and doesn’t permit. In 1794, Congress appropriated $15,000 for relief for French refugees who fled from insurrection in San Domingo (now Haiti) to Baltimore and Philadelphia. James Madison said, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the…