It appears evident upon even cursory reflection that taxation is not the problem that most vexes Americans; rather, the problem is the manner in which dollars confiscated from the productive are spent.  Which is to say: without approval, authorization, or oversight.  To be fair, suggesting that tax dollars are merely “spent” rhetorically bestows a degree of measurement, even prudence, upon the holder of the national checkbook that experience shows is unwarranted. If we’ve learned anything about how government spends money it is that it is manifestly not prudent.

I had the honor of speaking to a group of regular Americans at a Tax Day Tea Party in Lisle Illinois on April 15th.

I was invited to speak not because I’m an elected politician, but because a friend of mine suggested me to the organizer. There was a wonderful sort of meritocracy about the event. It mattered not at all who you were, but what your principles were. Case in point: an elected official did get up and offer some brief remarks to the crowd, which received a lukewarm response. Not five minutes later, a woman got up and addressed the crowd by saying that this politician isn’t your friend, and in fact had voted for the so-called stimulus bill. Wild applause.

More than one person at the event made this point: taxation itself isn’t bad. We band together in our community (call it civil society if you prefer) and agree that we’re going to outsource certain things rather than do them ourselves. There was a time in this country when volunteer fire departments were commonplace. That we’ve decided to hire full-time firefighters simply means that in most American communities, the accepted value is “we ought to have a fire department” and that service is funded by community taxes.

It’s when taxation is used for social engineering that Americans balk. Thomas Jefferson once said: “To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”

This problem – the inclination to bow to a conception of fairness, social justice or just plain redistribution – is exacerbated by an over-reaching general government.

The example I’ve long used – and I’m going to continue to do so until someone can convince me that the example is inadequate or can offer a superior analogy – is that of my own community. Suppose that DuPage County, Illinois decided that it was part of our values to offer residents of DuPage County free access to health care, preschool, and complementary jetskis and gold chains. I can, admittedly through some hardship to myself, pick up and leave DuPage County for a more sensible place in which to live; or, at least, one that appeals more to my sensibilities. If my city, instead, made this decision, I would have greater freedom to escape this – to my view – bad policy. I could move to a neighboring town, and stay within the same county. Again we begin to see how “balanced government” would change the debate or discussion over taxation.

We would all pay taxes to support those things which the general government in Washington is responsible for, pursuant to that handy little guide called the Constitution. On a local level, we could select how much intrusiveness we wanted from the “government” on domestic matters: health care, social security, education, all would be within the domain of your village board. In this way, we again acknowledge the superiority of balanced government as a tool for reform.

Thankfully, this remains a quintessentially American idea, and we have Madison (among others) to thank for its sheer brilliance.

“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.”

This is the entirety of the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the last of the ten amendments referred to as the Bill of Rights.  Thankfully, there are people left in the Union who understand the importance of the Tenth Amendment, and some of them are acting on it.

Oklahoma, under the leadership of Representative Charles Key reasserted the rights of the States pursuant to the 10th Amendment.  New Hampshire will soon vote on another such measure.

I’ve discussed Federalist 45 extensively on this site and others, but the facts are indisputable: the Founders intended a federal government limited to certain responsibilities, with most responsibility for the domestic matters of American citizens belonging to the States (as delegated to them by those same citizens).  This is the entire basis for our system of government.  Recent history proves that imbalance - an overly intrusive federal sphere - isn’t working.  Let’s support measures like this as we find them as a means of ensuring the continuity, not to mention the solvency, of the Union.

Forget for a moment such antiquated criteria like reason, logic, and common sense.  Forget also personal experience and general economic policy.  All of these frameworks suggest - and often loudly proclaim - that any bailout is indeed throwing good money after bad.  It’s bad business supporting bad business.

If all of that weren’t enough, a foundational approach based upon the Constitution renders the bailouts of private corporations by the government absurd, destructive and incompatible with original intent.

 As Jefferson noted in his autobiography:

“It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected. Were not this great country already divided into States, that division must be made that each might do for itself what concerns itself directly and what it can so much better do than a distant authority. Every state again is divided into counties, each to take care of what lies within its local bounds; each county again into townships or wards, to manage minuter details; and every ward into farms, to be governed each by its individual proprietor… It is by this partition of cares descending in gradation from general to particular that the mass of human affairs may be best managed for the good and prosperity of all.”

And again we return to this persistent matter of balance; of the division of powers.  How then should domestic matters such as bailouts be addressed?  In short, and borrowing tongue-in-cheek from that great moral question captured on wristbands across America, what would Jefferson do?

The bailout of a private corporation would be vehemently opposed, foremost; risk and reward, after all, go together for a reason.  Yet, if popular sentiment suggested that such a remarkable intervention was required, Jefferson - and any principled party - would suggest that such relief must come from the community in which this entity operates.  If it is the loss of jobs that evokes calls for “saving” a company, then naturally one would expect that the affected community would be the one to ante up.

What makes this conclusion all the more glaring in its departure from how these problems are being addressed is this: the affected communities and individuals have the power to save the automakers, for example.  It’s a rather simple solution.  Simply disband the union, for starters, which has extorted an hourly wage of close to $70.00 per hour, and accept the market pay rate (which is by competitive measures approximately $47.00 per hour).  This would begin the process of conserving cash that is essential to the survival of an organization in the midst of a turnaround.

Yet, we’re told by Congress (and, regrettably, the Executive) that a bailout is necessary, and they’re the only ones who can do it.  And through an inappropriately aggressive interpretation of “the general welfare” we’re staring down the prospect of American citizens rewarding poor executives, bad decisions, and union greed with good money.  I might add: largely against our will.

Have the American people been wholly conned into believing that central planning might actually work?  How far has this infection spread?

The question before us is to make a great determination: will we reclaim our Constitutional heritage through education, hard work, and sacrifice; or, will we continue as we have been, uninformed, uninterested and sliding towards statism? Our future has been uncertain before, and we rose to the occasion.

“It seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind.”

– Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 1, 27 October 1787)

Hamilton was right, of course, but he neglected the moral value of sacrifice. We, too, are arrived at a crisis, and it appears that it must be our era in which the decision will (again) be made.

This cannot pass without some further observations. Liberty is a fleeting condition of man. Once obtained, its ability to endure is hampered as it is beset on all sides by intrigue, malice and sloth. The enterprising actor will enrich himself at the expense of principle with little prompting. Enrichment may simply be living off of the taxpayers and remaining employed in “the people’s business” - somehow, remarkably, and beyond propriety, they find a way to convince themselves that they are the people’s business. In such personal ways is liberty weakened.

Outright distaste for liberty (as foreign an idea as that may seem) shall govern the actions of a not insubstantial portion of the people who desire the comfort of gilded chains; or not even standards that high. And often, not for themselves, but for others. Self-government is an uncomfortable proposition, and many fail to see that they are made in a higher image, and perfectly fit for self-government. They instead prefer a world in which they are as infants - wholly dependent on their nanny for their comforts. The nanny is only too happy to oblige when she is enticed with power and material gain. She is regularly one of the enterprising actors we identified. Apathy impairs the ability for liberty to endure, in part because of the two prior threats.

And so, with apathy, we come back to Hamilton. It is my firm belief that every generation has as its duty the struggle for liberty. For so precious a gift to obtained too cheaply will result in it being squandered. Yes, our generation will engage this fight. So too should the next generation. And the following. If liberty is a condition of man relative to his present, his time, how else should he expect to possess it? As an inheritance?

This organization exists for a few purposes: 1) to educate American youth on the reasons behind the specific and deliberate formation of our system of government; 2) to teach adult American citizens the same; 3) to advance these principles in each state in the Union; and 4) restore via the appropriate political tool, in practice, the intention of the original design of our government. With a respectful understanding of our past, our actions firmly rooted in our present circumstances, and our vision fixed on the return of balance to the spheres of government, we assert that societies of men are really capable of establishing good government from reflection and choice.

Well-meaning do-gooders with access to your wallet have failed - again, remarkably - to force distant external government to do that which is the responsibility of the individual and the family.

This article describes the wholly unsurprising failure of “Reading First” a federal reading program designed to help improve student reading comprehension.

The program, Reading First, was designed to help boost student performance in low-income elementary schools, but failed to improve reading comprehension, says the study from the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the Education Department.

There was no difference in comprehension scores between students who participated in Reading First and those who did not, the study found.

The findings released Thursday threw the program’s future into doubt.

Thank goodness for small favors; pity that it cost so much to learn an obvious truth. Our Founders knew that responsibilities belonging to the people had no business being co-opted by distant spheres of government. We’ll be forced to repeat this lesson until we insist our representatives adhere to the deliberate design and construction of the Constitution.

One of the key ideas I try and communicate in both writing and speaking is that there are all types of government, and the most important government - self-government - is the least practiced.  Distant, external government has no business getting involved in areas that are best administered closest to the people. This is what “Balanced Government” is all about.

Yet, we proceed down a dangerous path, immune, it seems, to the warning signs around us. This story today notes that there is a proposal for expanding the FHA: a Depression-era holdover that defies reason by growing in importance as we move further away from the Depression.

The most noteworthy part of the article (emphasis mine):

The plan would be a massive expansion of the Federal Housing Administration, the Depression-era mortgage insurer. FHA would take on $300 billion in new loans for as many as 1 million distressed homeowners, most of whom otherwise wouldn’t qualify for a government-backed loan.

Taxpayer dollars would be at risk should borrowers default on their new mortgages.

So, most of the homeowners in question wouldn’t qualify for a government-backed loan; yet, they’d be getting one. On top of this, defaults - when they occur - will be borne largely by the American taxpayer. Translated loosely, if you’re not getting one of these loans, you’re acting as the bank with your tax dollars (and no, you don’t get a vote in the credit committee). If we hit a recession and people default? That’s no longer the problem of Bank of America, or Wells Fargo, or Indymac Bank. Now it becomes the problem of the American taxpayer.

The complicated scheme gets worse, but the details aren’t the important point. The important point is that the federal government has no business bailing people out of private contracts they entered into in good faith. Even if one could imagine a scenario whereby having “the government” void a perfectly legal contractual agreement seems like a good idea (and I cannot), there’s absolutely no basis for having that sphere of government be the one that’s furthest away from the people. Hard hit real estate markets - such as Miami or Detroit - will be supported by people from all over the country. Their lack of caution, greed-driven speculation or simple indifference to obligations and lack of respect for contracts shall be subsidized by productive persons who manage their affairs properly and respect the law.

The bill is H.R. 5830: if by some chance you’re calling your representative, you might voice your displeasure specifically with this legislation.

And lest you think imbalance is confined to the realm of bad economics masquerading as “compassion”, there’s this story today about No Child Left Behind. It appears that the federal government is rolling out more laws to regulate the way States - and by extension, parents - educate their children.

To be perfectly clear, Mr. Madison wrote in Federalist #45:

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected.

The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State. The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security. As the former periods will probably bear a small proportion to the latter, the State governments will here enjoy another advantage over the federal government.

To Madison’s list I would add only: administration of the courts.

Amazing, then, that we’ve sunk to the condition we’re in. Will liberty be lost, crowded out by the ever-greater expansion of external government, simply because people aren’t educated on the proper role of the federal government? Or will we once again hold accountable ourselves, our neighbors, and our government?

The Tenth Amendment reads: “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.” The guidlines are there; the justification has been made; all we’re required to do is learn it and insist on compliance by those we send to represent us.

In a letter to Justice William Johnson dated June 12, 1823, Thomas Jefferson wrote (source: Jefferson, Writings; Library of America, p. 1476):

“I believe the States can best govern our home concerns, and the General Government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore, to see maintained that wholesome distribution of powers established by the constitution for the limitation of both; and never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold as at the market.”

It is difficult to both dispute the vision of Jefferson and argue that what we have today with respect to the administration of the people’s business is either proper or effective. Indeed, as Jefferson foresaw, the poorest administration of government is the one whereby the domestic matters which belong to the people are spirited away to a distant sphere of responsibility. This breeds distrust, apathy and contempt among the people for their own government.

As the Founders themselves told us time and again, it is this concept of the division of powers among the spheres - balanced government - which accounts for much of the genius of our system. Certainly, the separation of power among the branches of government is important, yet this mechanism wasn’t entirely new among governments in the 18th century. And of course the specific mechanisms created (especially balancing the representation scheme between the House and the Senate) also display the mark of genius, or at least thoughtful study and consideration.

Despite the often bitter partisanship between Jefferson and Hamilton and the then-Republicans and the Federalists in general, we can see from this example that there were concepts that were universally accepted and weren’t subject to partisan disagreement. The concept of Balanced Government is just such an idea.

I was reminded this weekend as I went through the week’s mail that part of our failure as a republic - if we should fail, and there are times that it appears we might - is an inability to think clearly about words and their meaning.

The March 2008 issue of Imprimis showed up this week and featured a lecture given by professor Charles R. Kesler entitled “Limited Government: Are the Good Times Really Over?” Kesler notes in his lecture that “limited” can also be energetic and doesn’t mean “small” or “weak” for that matter. Most importantly he states that limited government must be constitutional. Here I think we find agreement as I have long thought that “balanced government” is interchangeable with “constitutionally-consistent government.”

The reality is that we’ve got imbalanced government - what some people might call “big” government. The term “big government” is only somewhat correct as the converse implies that the ideal would be small government. As envisioned by our Founders - and as codified in our Constitution - government should be balanced: there are a few limited functions of distant external government. The rest belongs to the people and the states. Should the people decide to delegate these powers to the states, in other words, some people might have “big” government, but it would be consolidated at the state level.

While getting close to the mark I’d like him to hit, Kesler doesn’t spell it out exactly as he could. Nevertheless, it’s a brilliant piece in its thorough undressing of statism and the illuminating point about its origins: the threat of the rule of the few (wealthy elites) might become tyrannical. Perhaps this point might be an area of focus for free-market advocates in order to begin to diffuse some of the arguments of the American Left.

My fascination with this topic is seemingly endless; and seemingly without a shortage of glaring examples with which I can illustrate what is the proper (or, more appropriately: what is the improper) role of “government” between its spheres.

This story today is a prime example.

We are essentially faced with two competing solutions for how to address economic or societal crises. The first goes something like this:

People can’t be trusted; therefore, the activities that people have with each other (even activities seemingly as innocent as a consumer obtaining a mortgage through a broker) must be regulated to protect the parties involved. It is the job, then, of “government” (i.e. distant external, or federal, government) to create the mechanisms to watch, police or otherwise babysit adults in their commercial interactions. This applies to buying a home, obtaining loans, how much you pay for gasoline, if a baseball player is taking drugs, and thousands of other activities. The best way to protect people from themselves and each other is via the creation of bureaucratic entities empowered to interfere in areas that reason would suggest they have no business in.

Or:

We can let the market govern itself. Essentially this is letting the individual govern his or her behavior. Bear Stears goes out of business: wise executives remember the results of greed during the next real estate boom and avoid disaster; and the foolish ones make the same mistake. Then they go out of business, only to serve as a reminder - if you’re bright enough - of the dangers of speculation. The painful correction serves as a regulation of its own, and doesn’t require the plundering of taxpayers to do so, as the prior strategy does.

There are proper responsiblities for every sphere of government, from the self to the most distant external spheres. The more we apply critical thinking in this respect, the more likely we are to foster an environment in which people govern themselves and external government - at least to the degree by which it is enormous today - becomes less important.

I closed the last post with a comment on the necessity of proper education, and that seems like a good place to continue the discussion.

If you accept the premise that our system works only when it is largely in a state of balance (with respect to the responsibilities of “government” among the spheres of government); and that it becomes more and more ineffective as it becomes more imbalanced, one is naturally led to a series of questions. How did our system of government become imbalanced? And, when? What would balanced government look like? And how can we return to such a system?

To address these questions requires some founding wisdom. Samuel Adams, leading American patriot and prominent agitator for liberty, noted in a letter to John Trumbull that: “Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness.” There was a time, not too long ago, when one could say without condemnation that religion is the foundation of liberty and happiness (see: Reagan, Ronald). That such a sentiment might be frowned upon by ivy league professors or media professionals doesn’t negate the validity of it.

Adams had a point, bigger than promoting religion: our form of government was designed not for a dependent people, but a self-governing one. And what is self-government other than the practical, behavioral manifestation of virtue, namely, self-restraint and self-sufficiency? Yes, it is possible to be virtuous and secular. The existence of this mysterious creature - the virtuous secular American - notwithstanding, anecdotal evidence generally shows that such people, when you meet and question them, have the strange coincedence of being raised with a Biblical/Judeo-Christian worldview. They usually reveal this when they say “well, I’m not religious, but I was raised in a (religious environment).” That their worldview is formed not by their current philosophical infatuation but by their upbringing is a point I generally walk right up to, but not past. After all, a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still; and in time the person who is curious enough to study philosophy has a good chance of discovering this on their own. Such self-discovery, when it happens, is certainly more lasting and infinitely more treasured.

We’ve digressed a little, but the point, once again, is that self-government is the basis for how our whole system works. How does one foster this virtue?

There’s really one effective way to address this problem: focus on, not surprisingly, strengthening the smallest spheres of government. The smallest spheres are the individual and the family; and the neighborhood or the (sometimes church) community beyond the home. Stronger more personal spheres of government - closer to the individual - reinforce and strengthen the fabric of our republic. It should be no surprise that as we have ever-larger, over-reaching distant (federal) government, the republic as a whole seems weaker, less effective, more prone to failure.

Can it be corrected - or, in other words, how do we return to such a state of balance? It was Hamilton (Federalist No. 33) who once said: “If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.” So, naturally: we must first appeal to the form of our founding and second, act to correct the state of imbalance; the disrespectful relationship we’ve allowed between the citizens of this country and her founding compact.

Which brings me to education, because we first have to understand the “standard (we) have formed.” This organization’s purpose is to educate people on the proper role (read: responsibilities) of both internal and external government; hence the name. We think we’ll be a resource for Americans who in many cases will be hearing these concepts for the first time.

But our work would be ineffective, and any success temporary, if our only educational effort was aimed at adult Americans. Unfortunately, the societal degree of dependence on public education and the special interest indoctrination that occurs in public schools would constantly hamper our efforts. Every year, public schools are graduating students who have read the same union-approved text books. Every year, graduating students who believe the revisionist stories that foster not a sense of national pride in America, but instead teach us to be ashamed of our history.

Education of all Americans is critical, then, to the renewal of this Republic. With the support of our friends, families, and our loyal readers, and with the assistance of Divine Providence, we’ll work to meet this educational challenge.