Constitution Day 2016

Today is the 229th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitutional Convention convened on May 14, 1787 and work was finished and the delegates signed the Constitution on September 17 of that year. (Imagine getting something done like that today in four months!)

This special day provides me with the opportunity to highlight my personal favorite blog post since I started writing BeeLine. It is also among the Top 10 most viewed blog posts I have ever written.

If you have any doubt about the brilliance of our Founding Fathers and of the Constitution they drafted, read on about "Improper and Wicked Projects" in the Federalist Papers. What were Improper and Wicked Projects?

This is their list from 229 years ago.  I kid you not.

A rage for paper money 

A rage for the abolition of debts 

A rage for an equal division of property

A little eerie?  Read it all and send it on to others. The answers to our problems are already in existence. It was written down 229 years ago today.

Our Founders understood human nature very well. They knew if they wanted to develop a lasting framework for a constitutional government where the people elected their own government and representatives they needed to provide safeguards against in the Constitution against human fallibilities and foibles.

The Constitution was written to contain "Improper and Wicked Projects" and the factious leaders that may try to kindle the flame of dangerous political factions that could threaten the common good and rights of citizens.

You will better understand how important the Constitution is to us all by reading...

Improper and Wicked Projects 
(originally posted August 22, 2011)

Power, politics, greed, bias, conflicts of interest, oppression.  There is nothing going on today that our Founders did not anticipate.

Due to the intelligence and insights of our Founding Fathers they wrote a document that considered all of the above and more in writing the U.S. Constitution.  They knew that instability, injustice and confusion within the institution of government had caused many to fail. They were determined to build a governmental structure that could endure for the ages.

Federalist Paper #10 was written (by James Madison) to describe "How the Union Will Act as a Safeguard Against Domestic Division and Rebellion". The Founders understood that opposing political factions were the greatest potential threat to any government and that in many governments the only redress was violence.  They wanted to insure that factions could not wield power that would be dangerous to either the rights of other citizens or the common good.  What did they see as the most common and tangible source of faction?  The conflict between rich and poor. Here are the exact words from #10.

The most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. 

Where did they see the most danger for a majority to trample on the rights of a minority?  Taxation.

The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets. 

They understood that those that governed us had to be a cut above to balance and mediate these conflicting interests and put the public interest above any special interests.  However, they also knew that this was naive. "The Original Argument" modern translation of The Federalist Papers puts it this way.

Enlightened statesmen will not always be in power, and even if such mediation could happen, it would rarely take place with long-term interests in mind, since the immediate "here and now" interests of the party in power would most likely win the day at the expense of the rights of the other party, or the good of the whole.

Our Founding Fathers were one smart group.

They also knew that there was little they could do to prevent factions from occurring.  That could only be done by limiting liberties or insuring every citizen has the same opinions, feelings and the same interests. Neither was acceptable to the Founders.  They had no interest in preventing the causes, which is what Communist and Totalitarian governments do.  They focused on controlling the effects of factions.  Thus, they constructed a republican governmental framework with an ultimate goal of securing both the public good and private rights against the dangers of an oppressive majority faction.  Everything in the Constitution was built on this foundational principle.

They built a government which derived all of its power directly or indirectly from the People, administered by representatives who hold their offices at the pleasure of the People, for a limited period of time, or during good behavior.  Using different time periods for holding office, including the separation of powers between the three branches of the federal government and limiting the power of the federal government relative to the states were all important foundational principles to achieve their overarching goal of facilitating majority rule but protecting minority rights.

Perhaps most applicable to today is what Federalist #10 says in the second to last paragraph.  It explains why they set up the republican form of government we have and not a democracy or parliamentarian system. It literally stopped me in my tracks when I read it.  I re-read it several times in The Original Argument and then went to the actual Federalist Papers to read it exactly as it was written.

There could not be a better example to show how far we have deviated from the path the Founders established and why they set up safeguards in the Constitution to protect the People.  It reads as follows with the bold emphasis being mine:

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

How much more relevant can you be to what we have seen in recent years in this country, most particularly in the Obama Administration? The Founders found all of these to be "improper or wicked projects"by dangerous factions. These were the types of government abuses they were trying to prevent:

• A rage of paper money (What has the Federal Reserve been doing?)

• An abolition of debt (What was done to the secured creditors in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies or with the bailout of Wall Street? What about the calls to abolish all student debt?)

• The equal division of property (Redistribution of income and wealth through a focus on taxing the rich)

Isn't it interesting that each of these "improper or wicked projects" is also at the core of what has motivated the Tea Party? Terrorists? I think not. These are the sons and daughters of the Founding Fathers united against the very factious leaders our forefathers warned us about.

227 Years and Counting

Today is the 227th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitutional Convention had convened on May 14, 1787 and work was finished and the delegates signed the Constitution on September 17.

The Constitution was then sent to the 13 states for ratification.  Nine were required for the Constitution to fully "unite" the states. That did not occur until June 21, 1788 when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document.

In the interim, the Federalist Papers were written to explain the theories, rationale and reasoning of our Founders.  Alexander Hamilton devised the idea to write and publish this series of papers in an effort to enlist support for ratification in the states and to answer the many criticisms that were lobbied against the Constitution. This was particularly the case when it came to defending the need for a federal government at all.  Oh, how times have changed!

Hamilton enlisted James Madison and John Jay to join him in writing the series of essays.  Hamilton ended up writing 51 of the 85 articles.  John Jay fell ill and ended up writing only five papers.  This left the remainder to Madison who is known today as the "Father of the Constitution".  By the way, Madison was just 36 years old and Hamilton was 32 when they were writing the Federalist Papers.

What is truly amazing in reading the Federalist Papers is how well our Founders understood human nature and the efforts they took to provide safeguards in the Constitution against human fallibilities and foibles.

I have written about the Federalist Papers before, and it being Constitution Day, I thought I would once again highlight what is perhaps my favorite blog post since I started writing BeeLine.

If you have any doubt about the brilliance of our Founding Fathers and of the Constitution they drafted, read on about "Improper and Wicked Projects" in the Federalist Papers.  What were Improper and Wicked Projects?

This is their list.  I kid you not.

A rage for paper money 

A rage for the abolition of debts 

A rage for an equal division of property

A little eerie?  Read it all and send it on to others.  The answers to our problems are already in existence.  It was written down 227 years ago today. We just need the good sense to return to these founding principles.


Improper and Wicked Projects (originally posted August 22, 2011)

Power, politics, greed, bias, conflicts of interest, oppression.  There is nothing going on today that our Founders did not anticipate.

Due to the intelligence and insights of our Founding Fathers they wrote a document that considered all of the above and more in writing the U.S. Constitution.  They knew that instability, injustice and confusion within the institution of government had caused many to fail.  They were determined to build a governmental structure that could endure for the ages.

Federalist Paper #10 was written (by James Madison) to describe "How the Union Will Act as a Safeguard Against Domestic Division and Rebellion". The Founders understood that opposing political factions were the greatest potential threat to any government and that in many governments the only redress was violence.  They wanted to insure that factions could not wield power that would be dangerous to either the rights of other citizens or the common good.  What did they see as the most common and tangible source of faction?  The conflict between rich and poor. Here are the exact words from #10.

The most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. 

Where did they see the most danger for a majority to trample on the rights of a minority?  Taxation.

The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets. 

They understood that those that governed us had to be a cut above to balance and mediate these conflicting interests and put the public interest above any special interests.  However, they also knew that this was naive. The Common Argument modern translation puts it this way.

Enlightened statesmen will not always be in power, and even if such mediation could happen, it would rarely take place with long-term interests in mind, since the immediate "here and now" interests of the party in power would most likely win the day at the expense of the rights of the other party, or the good of the whole.

Our Founding Fathers were one smart group.

They also knew that there was little they could do to prevent factions from occurring.  That could only be done by limiting liberties or insuring every citizen has the same opinions, feelings and the same interests. Neither was acceptable to the Founders.  They had no interest in preventing the causes, which is what Communist and Totalitarian governments do.  They focused on controlling the effects of factions.  Thus, they constructed a republican governmental framework with an ultimate goal of securing both the public good and private rights against the dangers of an oppressive majority faction. Everything in the Constitution was built on this foundational principle. 

They built a government which derived all of its power directly or indirectly from the People, administered by representatives who hold their offices at the pleasure of the People, for a limited period of time, or during good behavior. Using different time periods for holding office, including the separation of powers between the three branches of the federal government and limiting the power of the federal government relative to the states were all important foundational principles to achieve their overarching goal of facilitating majority rule but protecting minority rights.

Perhaps most applicable to today is what Federalist #10 says in the second to last paragraph.  It explains why they set up the republican form of government we have and not a democracy or parliamentarian system. It literally stopped me in my tracks when I read it.  I re-read it several times in The Original Argument and then went to the actual Federalist Papers to read it exactly as it was written.  There could not be a better example to show how far we have deviated from the path the Founders established and why they set up safeguards in the Constitution to protect the People. 
It reads as follows with the bold emphasis being mine:

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

How much more relevant can you be to what we have seen in recent years in this country, most particularly in the Obama Administration?  The Founders found all of these to be "improper or wicked projects"by dangerous factions.  These were the types of government abuses they were trying to prevent. 

• a rage of paper money (what is the Federal Reserve doing?)

• an abolition of debt (what was done to the secured creditors in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies or with the bailout of Wall Street?)

• for an equal division of property (Redistribution of income and wealth through a focus on taxing the rich)

Isn't it interesting that each of these "improper or wicked projects" is also at the core of what has motivated the Tea Party?  Terrorists?  I think not.  These are the sons and daughters of the Founding Fathers united against the very factious leaders our forefathers warned us about.  

Constitution Day

Today is the 226th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution.  The Constitutional Convention had convened on May 14, 1787 and work was finished and the delegates signed the Constitution on September 17.

Credit:AnnenbergClassroom.org

The Constitution was then sent to the 13 states for ratification.  Nine were required for the Constitution to fully "unite" the states.  That did not occur until June 21, 1788 when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document.

In the interim, the Federalist Papers were written to explain the theories, rationale and reasoning of our Founders.  Alexander Hamilton devised the idea to write and publish this series of papers in an effort to enlist support for ratification in the states and to answer the many criticisms that were lobbied against the Constitution.  This was particularly the case when it came to defending the need for a federal government at all.  Oh, how times have changed!

Hamilton enlisted James Madison and John Jay to join him in writing the series of essays.  Hamilton ended up writing 51 of the 85 articles.  John Jay fell ill and ended up writing only five papers.  This left the remainder to Madison who is know today as the "Father of the Constitution".  By the way, Madison was just 36 years old and Hamilton was 32 when they were writing the Federalist Papers.

What is truly amazing in reading the Federalist Papers is how well our Founders understood human nature and the efforts they took to provide safeguards in the Constitution against human fallibilities and foibles.

I have written about the Federalist Papers before and it being Constitution Day I thought I would once again highlight what is perhaps my favorite blog post since I started writing BeeLine.

If you have any doubt about the brilliance of our Founding Fathers and of the Constitution they drafted read on about "Improper and Wicked Projects" in the Federalist Papers.  What were Improper and Wicked Projects?

This is their list.  I kid you not.

A rage for paper money 

A rage for the abolition of debts 

A rage for an equal division of property

A little eerie?  Read it all and send it on to others.  The answers to our problems are already in existence.  It was written down 226 years ago today.   We just need the good sense to return to these founding principles.

Improper and Wicked Projects (originally posted August 22, 2011)


Power, politics, greed, bias, conflicts of interest, oppression.  There is nothing going on today that our Founders did not anticipate.

Due to the intelligence and insights of our Founding Fathers they wrote a document that considered all of the above and more in writing the U.S. Constitution.  They knew that instability, injustice and confusion within the institution of government had caused many to fail.  They were determined to build a governmental structure that could endure for the ages.

Federalist Paper #10 was written (by James Madison) to describe "How the Union Will Act as a Safeguard Against Domestic Division and Rebellion". The Founders understood that opposing political factions were the greatest potential threat to any government and that in many governments the only redress was violence.  They wanted to insure that factions could not wield power that would be dangerous to either the rights of other citizens or the common good.  What did they see as the most common and tangible source of faction?  The conflict between rich and poor. Here are the exact words from #10.

The most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. 

Where did they see the most danger for a majority to trample on the rights of a minority?  Taxation.

The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets. 

They understood that those that governed us had to be a cut above to balance and mediate these conflicting interests and put the public interest above any special interests.  However, they also knew that this was naive. The Common Argument modern translation puts it this way.

Enlightened statesmen will not always be in power, and even if such mediation could happen, it would rarely take place with long-term interests in mind, since the immediate "here and now" interests of the party in power would most likely win the day at the expense of the rights of the other party, or the good of the whole.

Our Founding Fathers were one smart group.

They also knew that there was little they could do to prevent factions from occurring.  That could only be done by limiting liberties or insuring every citizen has the same opinions, feelings and the same interests. Neither was acceptable to the Founders.  They had no interest in preventing the causes, which is what Communist and Totalitarian governments do.  They focused on controlling the effects of factions.  Thus, they constructed a republican governmental framework with an ultimate goal of securing both the public good and private rights against the dangers of an oppressive majority faction.  Everything in the Constitution was built on this foundational principle. 

They built a government which derived all of its power directly or indirectly from the People, administered by representatives who hold their offices at the pleasure of the People, for a limited period of time, or during good behavior.  Using different time periods for holding office, including the separation of powers between the three branches of the federal government and limiting the power of the federal government relative to the states were all important foundational principles to achieve their overarching goal of facilitating majority rule but protecting minority rights.

Perhaps most applicable to today is what Federalist #10 says in the second to last paragraph.  It explains why they set up the republican form of government we have and not a democracy or parliamentarian system. It literally stopped me in my tracks when I read it.  I re-read it several times in The Original Argument and then went to the actual Federalist Papers to read it exactly as it was written.  There could not be a better example to show how far we have deviated from the path the Founders established and why they set up safeguards in the Constitution to protect the People.  It reads as follows with the bold emphasis being mine:

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

How much more relevant can you be to what we have seen in recent years in this country, most particularly in the Obama Administration?  The Founders found all of these to be "improper or wicked projects"by dangerous factions.  These were the types of government abuses they were trying to prevent. 

• a rage of paper money (what is the Federal Reserve doing?)

• an abolition of debt (what was done to the secured creditors in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies or with the bailout of Wall Street?)

• for an equal division of property (Redistribution of income and wealth through a focus on taxing the rich)

Isn't it interesting that each of these "improper or wicked projects" is also at the core of what has motivated the Tea Party?  Terrorists?  I think not.  These are the sons and daughters of the Founding Fathers united against the very factious leaders our forefathers warned us about.  

I Need Your Help. The Country Needs Your Help.

Today marks 18 months since I started writing BeeLine.  This is also the 253rd blog post I have written since I began.  I sincerely appreciate all of the kinds words and the encouragement I have received from many of you.

Unfortunately, there are just not enough of you.  Readership is steady but it is not growing.  I need your help in spreading the word.  Please consider recommending BeeLine to your friends if you see a post that you like.  Chances are someone else will also.  I definitely see an increase in volume when one of you links BeeLine on Facebook or in other forms of social media.  It does make a difference.

I know in talking to a lot of you that you forget to check BeeLine from time to time.  You are busy and there is too much to do, too much to read and too much to keep up with.  I fully understand.

An easy way to solve that problem is to subscribe to BeeLine by email.  It is easy to do by going to the "FOLLOW BY EMAIL" box in the upper right hand corner and entering your email address.  Whenever I publish a new post you will receive it right in your email box.

You can also follow BeeLine through Google Connect that will also let you connect through Twitter or Yahoo.  You can set that notification up in the "FOLLOWERS" section that is also in the upper right hand corner.

I want to test the power of BeeLine followers so tomorrow I am going to re-post my favorite BeeLine post of the last year and a half, "Improper and Wicked Projects".   Many new readers of BeeLine may not have seen this post from last August.   There are many, many more Americans that should read it   to better understand our founding principles and how far off track we have gotten in this country.  Please consider passing this post along to others that you believe might enjoy or benefit from it.

I consider myself a pretty good student of history.  I must admit that I never had read Federalist Paper #10 before reading it last year.   After reading it, I now have a true appreciation of the genius of our Founders and their wisdom in crafting our Constitution.   I was truly awestruck when I came across the passage on "Improper and Wicked Projects".  It was almost as if James Madison was alive today and writing about what is happening right now in our country.

If there is one thing that I have learned in all the reading and research that I have done in writing BeeLine is that we invite peril when we ignore our Constitution.  It has allowed us to enjoy the longest period of governmental stability in the world.   We invite problems when we try to expand it, extend it, extrapolate from it or excuse it.

As much as we want to think that we have evolved as People, when reading Federalist #10 we can see we have not changed one iota.  Our Founders understood our flaws, fallibilities and failings.  Even more importantly, they understood that combining these human weaknesses with someone who wielded the power of government was particularly dangerous.

Our Constitution was intended to provide the protections for us to survive the "bad actors" and the "bad times".  Our Founders could not prevent them from taking office but they designed a system to limit their individual power through checks and balances

Our three branches of government and the balance of powers among them are supposed to be our primary defense against tyrants and villains.  However, the final power in our Republic is the vote of the People.  That is the last wall of defense.

Our Founding Fathers did all they could to protect us in writing the Constitution.  Most importantly, they gave the People the power to have the government they want over the long term.  It might not always work the way the People want for two year, four year, or even six year periods at a time, due to the election cycles.  However, the People can have a major impact within two years, a significant impact within four years and almost total impact within six years (those lifetime appointments to the Judiciary can continue to upset things for a long time) on what type of government they will receive.

Therefore, the bottom line is that our Constitution gives the People the power to control their own destiny like no other country in the history of mankind.  The question that will be answered this year is what kind of country do we want in the future?

One of my favorite quotes is from Benjamin Franklin right after the Constitutional Convention had ended where the deliberations had been conducted in secret and no one really knew what the Founders had created.

Outside Independence Hall when

the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin,"Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded,"A republic, if you can keep it."

Keep this in mind while reading "Improper and Wicked Projects" tomorrow and send it to others.  Many people simply do not have a solid foundation of facts.  Since I began writing BeeLine my primary objective has been to give you solid content and context first and let my opinions follow the facts.  This post stands out from any I have written in giving me facts that I never expected about the thinking behind our Constitution and its relevance to today.  More need to understand and recognize the "Improper and Wicked Projects" that are among us.

I need your help.  More importantly, your country needs your help.

Improper, Wicked or Both?

I have no doubt what James Madison, the fourth President of the United States and referred to by many as  the Father of the Constitution, would say about Joe Biden's student debt cancellation plan.

He would say it is improper.

Or wicked.

Or perhaps both improper and wicked.

He might even say this is what happens when dangerous factions start promoting such things.

Biden announced yesterday that he is going to cancel student debt of $10,000 ($20,000 for those who also got Pell Grants---60% of borrowers fall in this category) for households with up to $250,000 of income by executive order. 

The $10,000/$20.000 per person debt cancellation will directly cost $360 billion according to estimates by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Biden has also proposed a new rule that will only require payments on student loans on up to 5% of an individual's discretionary income. It is currently 10%. This will cost another $120 billion over the next 10 years.

Finally, Biden has extended the current pause of student loan repayments (which has been in effect for the last 2-1/2 years) for an additional four months. That is estimated to cost another $20 million.

It all adds up to a cool half a trillion dollars on the signature of one man.

I doubt that James Madison or our Founders ever thought this would be possible.

Credit: https://twitter.com/BudgetHawks/status/1562560080645525506/photo/1

 

The cost of the student debt cancellation is more than double what the so-called "Inflation Reduction Act" was supposed to save in federal budget dollars over the next 10 years.

So much for deficit reduction. If anyone believed that to begin with.

We can only guess what additional fuel this debt cancellation will have on the inflation fire as well.

So much for inflation reduction as well.

First, let's put some context around how much student debt is out there.

There is currently over $1.7 trillion in student loan debt in the United States. 

$1.6 trillion of this is held by the federal government since the Obama administration federalized most of the student loan program in 2010.

There are over 45 million outstanding student loans as of August, 2022. The White House estimates that 43 million of these loans will be at least partially cancelled as a result of this action.

It is also important to consider that about 50% of all student loan debt outstanding was taken out for graduate programs---medical and dental school, law school, MBA programs etc.

I think Madison would be befuddled that any President would believe he could cancel lawfully owed student debt without Congressional approval.

Nancy Pelosi said the same thing last year.

Source: https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1562150784862756865

Press Secretary Jen Psaki said last year that Joe Biden was waiting for a bill from Congress to cancel student loan debt and he would sign it if it was passed. There was no mention that he had the power to act on his own at that time.

Source: https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1562595892649402369

What changed?

Biden has seen a drastic decline in support from young voters since the 2020 election.

He received 60% of the vote of those ages18-34 in 2020.

A Quinnipiac poll in in June showed Biden had a mere 21% approval rating from these same young voters. Biden was at 48% approval with voters age 65+ in the same poll.

Credit: https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/biden-approval-at-22-among-young-adults-24-among-hispanics-poll/?utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter

Biden and Democrats are looking at a future of election oblivion if they lose the young voters which have long been their most reliable voting bloc.

The student loan cancellation is a blatant political ploy to curry favor with the young, liberal, college class that has increasingly been the heart and soul of the Democrat party.

At the same time, this student cancellation plan spits in the face of the working class high school grad that has abandoned the Democrats and become the energetic base of the Republican Party and Donald Trump in particular.

If you think this is anything more than crass political pandering and counter-punching think again.

How does Biden think he can get away with this constitutionally?

It appears Biden is relying on a post-9/11 HEROES ACT that allows the Secretary of Education to grant relief from student loan requirements during specific periods (war, other military operations, or national emergency). That HEROES ACT allows the Secretary to “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs."

Waive or modify provisions of the loan?

It says nothing about cancelling the loan permanently.

Further, how can we still be in a national emergency with Covid for this purpose while at the same time Biden has argued we are not in a national emergency with Covid for Title 42 purposes at the southern border?

It is also interesting that the Biden administration has been forcefully denying we are in a recession pointing to the low unemployment rate and strong labor market. This raises the question as to where the hardship is coming from that is getting in the way of the repaying these student loans?

One thing we can be sure of is that this student loan cancellation will be challenged in court.

You can also be sure that those student borrowers are going to be much worse off if this executive action is overturned by the judiciary as the interest on the loan will continue to compound and put these borrowers further in the hole.

Let us return to James Madison who wrote in Federalist Paper #10 how our Constitution with its three branches, its separation of powers and its federalist view of government was designed to protect us from dangerous factions that might try to promote "Improper and Wicked Projects".

What were three leading examples of "Improper and Wicked Projects" according to Madison?

A rage for the abolition of debts 

A rage for paper money 

A rage for an equal division (or redistribution) of property 

Cancelling student loans would seem to be a trifecta involving all three.

You have the rage for the abolition of the student debt.

You have the rage for the redistribution of property to a few (the student loan borrowers) from everyone else.

You have the rage for the creation of even more paper money by the Federal Reserve to pay for the cancelled debt to balance the federal government's books.

It does not get more improper... or wicked than that according to Madison.

Unless you consider this take by Nina Turner who is a former State Senator in Ohio.

What is truly scary is that she has over 550,000 Twitter followers who must believe this stuff.

Turner has also been an Assistant Professor of History at Cuyahoga Community College if you wonder how some of younger voters have voted the way they have in the past.

If what Turner says is true, why doesn't every bank and credit card company cancel all the debt they have from all their borrowers so they can save all those costs?

When James Madison referred to "dangerous factions" he also knew what he was talking about.

Student loan debt cancellation---improper, wicked, dangerous---take your pick.

They all apply

Crazy and Improper

Every day I think that the Democrats must have reached their limit on crazy ideas.

However, another day passes and it just gets crazier.

As I have written before, one of the favorite targets of the Democrats is the electoral college. It just frustrates them to no end that they have to convince voters in states beyond California and New York to support their agenda in order to be elected President.

A majority of the Democrats in the Presidential field are on record as favoring the abolition of the electoral college. This includes Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Beto O'Rourke, Pete Buttigieg and Julian Castro. Predictably, Kamala Harris has straddled the issue as has Amy Klobuchar. No one seems to know where Joe Biden is on the issue. That is also no surprise.

The Left's criticism of the electoral college reached new levels of craziness recently when Chris Hayes argued on MSNBC that the electoral college would be unconstitutional if it was not in the Constitution.

Yes, you would read that right. This is the direct quote from his show.

"The weirdest thing about the Electoral College is the fact that if it wasn't specifically in the Constitution for the presidency, it would be unconstitutional."

No doubt that is the same way the Democrats feel about the right to free speech, religion and the right to bear arms.

Why did those darn Founders have to be so specific? 

Of course, there was one right the Founders were naive about and must have thought they did not have to be so specific about----"the right to life".

They must have assumed that no one would ever question that most basic right. How wrong they were.

Bernie Sanders was also at it last week in declaring that (beyond forgiving all student loan debt) he also wants to abolish all existing medical debt.

Sen. Bernie Sanders announced late Friday that he plans to eliminate billions in medical debt, hinting at a proposal the 2020 presidential Democratic candidate's campaign has yet to release in full. 

The plan, which the Sanders campaign says would cancel $81 billion in existing past-due medical debt and make changes to the 2005 bankruptcy bill, is not expected to be released in its entirety for another month.

You have to ask what is next? What else can we forgive? Mortgages, credit card or auto loan debt?

 Of course, as always, left unsaid is who is going to pay for all of this?

Seeing all of this craziness I could not help but think again about our Founders and what their reaction would be to all of this.

Trust me, they would not be calling it crazy.

They would be calling it "Wicked" and "Improper".

How do I know?

The Federalist Papers were written to explain the theories, rationale and reasoning behind the Constitution.

What is truly amazing in reading the Federalist Papers is how well our Founders understood human nature and the efforts they took to provide safeguards in the Constitution against human fallibilities and foibles.

One of the bedrock principles underlying the drafting of the U.S. Constitution was to do everything possible to safeguard the union against possible domestic division and rebellion.

The Founders understood that opposing political factions were the greatest potential threat to any government and that in many governments the only redress was violence.  They wanted to insure that factions could not wield power that would be dangerous to either the rights of other citizens or the common good.

They also knew that there was little they could do to prevent factions from occurring.  That could only be done by limiting liberties or insuring every citizen has the same opinions, feelings and the same interests. Neither was acceptable to the Founders.

They had no interest in preventing the causes, which is what Communist and Totalitarian governments do. They focused on controlling the effects of factions. Thus, they constructed a republican governmental framework with an ultimate goal of securing both the public good and private rights against the dangers of an oppressive majority faction. Everything in the Constitution was built on this foundational principle.

This is one of the reasons we have an electoral college. It is also why the Constitution originally did not provide for the direct election of Senators. Our Founders were wary of a pure democracy which could trample the rights of minorities.

James Madison in Federalist Paper #10 also enumerated those things that were most likely to result in the development of dangerous factions that government (and the people) should be protected against.

Madison called them "Improper or Wicked Projects". It could not be much clearer what the Founders thought of these potential risks and the need to avoid them at all costs because of the danger they posed to the nation at large.

What were some of these these Improper or Wicked Projects?

1. A rage for paper money (exactly what the Federal Reserve did with Quantitative Easing and is being done again around the world with low (and negative interest rates) engineered by Central Bankers.

Notice that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and many Democrats now are also arguing that we can just print all the money that is needed for the Green New Deal or other proposals they favor.


2. A rage for the abolition of debts (what was done to the detriment of secured creditors of automakers in favor of the unions under the Obama administration)

Notice that Bernie Sanders and many Democrats think student loans should be forgiven. Sanders now wants to do the same with medical debts.


3. A rage for an equal division of property (the foundational principle of socialism that includes redistribution of wealth from rich to poor).

Notice that many Democrats support a 70% top income tax rate and increase in the estate tax. Warren has proposed a wealth tax as well.

These are the actual words in Federalist #10 regarding those improper and wicked projects and why the Founders designed the republican government they did rather than a pure democracy.

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

There is no mistaking what the Founders would think about these crazy ideas.

In fact, their words are stronger than mine. Consider the words they used.

RAGE.

WICKED.

IMPROPER.

Is that specific enough to know exactly what the people who wrote the Constitution would think about what the Democrats are selling?

Notice as well that the Founders fully understood we could have some factious leaders and crazy ideas in particular states (California? New York?). They also understood that we might see religious sects degenerate into a political faction in some places (Ilhan Omar in Minnesota? Rashida Tlaib in Michigan?). However, the electoral college and the republican form or government was designed to insure that these factions could not control the whole.

Is it any wonder that the Democrats seek to diminish the Founders and denigrate the Constitution every chance they get?

The Founders had their number before they even existed.

Nothing New In 234 Years

What do we hear Democrats talking about right now?

The need to spend trillions of dollars on "human infrastructure".

The need to continue the moratorium on rent and repayment of student loan debt.

The need to raise taxes on "the rich".

Of course, we have also seen inflation spike as a result of the infusion of printed money created by the Federal Reserve to cover the debt caused by trillions of dollars in stimulus and Covid-related spending over the last year.

The moratorium on evictions has gotten the most publicity in the last couple of days as the CDC imposed moratorium expired on July 31.

I am still at a loss as how anyone thought that a bunch of unelected bureaucrats at the CDC had the authority and power to decide that renters did not have to pay legally owed rent to their landlords in the first place?

How could something like that be done under our Constitution without it being voted on by our elected representatives?

The Supreme Court obviously agreed since it ruled in June that the CDC lacked the legal authority to do what it did.

However, in a sign of the times we live in, the Supreme Court did not rule that the CDC moratorium should be repealed retroactively. It merely ruled that the CDC did not have the authority to do it again once the current moratorium expired on July 31.

The Court stated that if it was going to be extended again it was the responsibility of Congress to pass a law to do it.

Nancy Pelosi tried to persuade the Democrat-controlled House to pass an extension but she could not find the votes before their August recess.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/congress-scrambles-extend-eviction-moratorium-saturday-expiration-n1275485

In another sign of the times, having failed to get the necessary votes, Nancy Pelosi then urged Joe Biden to just ignore the law, the Supreme Court and the Constitution, and extend the moratorium anyway.

In rare discord with his own party, Biden faced new pressure to act after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders on Sunday urged the White House to extend the moratorium despite legal concerns.

To his credit, Biden stated he did not have that power.

Over the past year, the CDC extended the moratorium meant to help Americans struggling to pay rent during the pandemic three times. But the White House now says only Congress can extend the evictions freeze after the Supreme Court ruled in June that the CDC overstepped its authority when it created the policy.

However, that may not matter in the end. Recent reports indicate Biden may move ahead anyway with a revised program. So much for the rule of the law. It seems that this is a recurring pattern with Democrats. Look no further than enforcement of immigration law if you have any doubts about that.

If this is done it is another typical Democrat maneuver. If you don't like the law, just ignore it. If you later get slapped down by the courts, so what?

Can you imagine if a Republican said something like this?

Source: https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1422610289225256964

Of course, the moratorium does not forgive the renter of the rental payments. It merely gives them a limited reprieve. However, the longer the moratorium goes on it is obvious it will be harder for the renter to make up all the past due payments. We are now talking about a year of missed payments.

How many people are going to be in position to make up these rent payments?

Therefore, it clear that the end game here is to have the rent payments forgiven. In fact, Congress already included $46.5 billion for rental assistance in one of the earlier Covid relief packages for state and local governments to distribute for that purpose.

It is just another example of what could have been considered a well-meaning program that in the end will create another cycle of dependency that will undoubtedly do more harm than good.

It also shows no respect for the property rights of the landlords who are not being compensated and yet have bills to pay themselves--mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, maintenance and the like.

I find it interesting that I have not seen where any government entity that has been willing to provide a moratorium on property taxes on any real estate subject to the renter's moratorium.

It is also interesting looking at the issues that the Democrats care most about are the same as those that  James Madison and the Founders described as "wicked and improper projects" in Federalist Paper #10.

In that Federalist Paper , Madison explained why the Founders established a representative republic form of government rather than a democracy or parliamentary system. 

The Founders understood that opposing political factions were the greatest potential threat to any government and that in many governments the only redress was violence.  They wanted to insure that factions could not wield power that would be dangerous to either the rights of other citizens or the common good.  What did they see as the most common and tangible source of faction?  The conflict between rich and poor. Here are the exact words from #10 published on November 22, 1787.

The most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. 

Where did they see the most danger for a majority to trample on the rights of a minority?  Taxation.

The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets. 

They understood that those that governed us had to be a cut above to balance and mediate these conflicting interests and put the public interest above any special interests.  However, they also knew that this was naive. A modern translation puts it this way.

Enlightened statesmen will not always be in power, and even if such mediation could happen, it would rarely take place with long-term interests in mind, since the immediate "here and now" interests of the party in power would most likely win the day at the expense of the rights of the other party, or the good of the whole.

Our Founding Fathers were one smart group.

It is as if they knew exactly how political games could be played to the detriment of individual rights and the long-term interests of the nation.

They also knew that there was little they could do to prevent factions from occurring.  That could only be done by limiting liberties or insuring every citizen has the same opinions, feelings and the same interests. Neither was acceptable to the Founders.  

They had no interest in preventing the causes, which is what Communist and Totalitarian governments do.  They focused on controlling the effects of factions.  Thus, they constructed a republican governmental framework with an ultimate goal of securing both the public good and private rights against the dangers of an oppressive majority faction. Everything in the Constitution was built on this foundational principle. 

Perhaps most applicable today is what Federalist #10 says in the second to last paragraph. 

There could not be a better example to show how far we have deviated from the path the Founders established and why they set up safeguards in the Constitution to protect the People. 

It reads as follows with the bold emphasis being mine:

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

 

How much more relevant can you be to what we are seeing today in what the Democrats want to do?

The Founders found all of these to be "improper or wicked projects"by dangerous factions.  These were the very types of government abuses they were trying to prevent. 

A rage for paper money (the Democrats want to pass an endless number of trillion dollar spending bills funded by nothing more than debt facilitated by money printed by the Federal Reserve)

Calls for an abolition of debt (what do the Democrats want to do with rental payments and student loan debt?)

Calls for an equal division of property (the Democrats continually want to redistribute income and wealth through a focus on taxing the rich and promising to not do anything to anyone else)

James Madison called all of these "improper and wicked". Those are pretty strong words.

Is it any wonder that the Democrats also want to disparage the Founders and the Constitution at every turn these days?

I think our Founders knew how the game would be played well over 230 years ago. 

They knew what improper and wicked projects were.

They knew how dangerous the people were who promoted such projects.

Why then don't more people understand that today when it is occurring right in front of us?

Improper And Wicked Projects

I wrote previously about The Original Argument which is an updated writing of the Federalist Papers.  I have moved around the book reading different Papers as I have time.  It really is unfortunate that more people are not familiar with the Federalist Papers for in this contemporaneous writing we have the theories, rationale and reasoning of the Founders for our Constitution.  What is truly amazing in reading the Federalist Papers is how well they understood human nature.  Power, politics, greed, fallibilities, bias, conflicting interests, oppression. There is nothing going on today that they did not anticipate.

Due to the intelligence and insights of our Founding Fathers they wrote a document that considered all of the above and more in writing the U.S. Constitution.  They knew that instability, injustice and confusion within the institution of government had caused many to fail.  They were determined to build a governmental structure that could endure for the ages.

Federalist Paper #10 was written to describe "How the Union Will Act as a Safeguard Against Domestic Division and Rebellion". They understood that opposing political factions were the greatest potential threat to any government and that in many governments the only redress was violence.  They wanted to insure that factions could not wield power that would be dangerous to either the rights of other citizens or the common good.  What did they see as the most common and tangible source of faction?  The conflict between rich and poor. Here are the exact words from #10.

The most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. 

Where did they see the most danger for a majority to trample on the rights of a minority?  Taxation.

The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets. 

They understood that those that governed us had to be a cut above to balance and mediate these conflicting interests and put the public interest above any special interests.  However, they also knew that this was naive. The Common Argument modern translation puts it this way.

Enlightened statesmen will not always be in power, and even if such mediation could happen, it would rarely take place with long-term interests in mind, since the immediate "here and now" interests of the party in power would most likely win the day at the expense of the rights of the other party, or the good of the whole.

Our Founding Fathers were one smart group.

They also knew that there was little they could do to prevent factions from occurring.  That could only be done by limiting liberties or insuring every citizen has the same opinions, feelings and the same interests. Neither was acceptable to the Founders.  They had no interest in preventing the causes, which is what Communist and Totalitarian governments do.  They focused on controlling the effects of factions.  Thus, they constructed a republican governmental framework with an ultimate goal of securing both the public good and private rights against the dangers of an oppressive majority faction.  Everything in the Constitution was built on this foundational principle.

They built a government which derived all of its power directly or indirectly from the People, administered by representatives who hold their offices at the pleasure of the People, for a limited period of time, or during good behavior.  Using different time periods for holding office, including the separation of powers between the three branches of the federal government and limiting the power of the federal government relative to the states were all important foundational principles to achieve their overarching goal of facilitating majority rule but protecting minority rights.

Perhaps most applicable to today is what Federalist #10 says in the second to last paragraph.  It explains why they set up the republican form of government we have and not a democracy or parliamentarian system. It literally stopped me in my tracks when I read it.  I re-read it several times in The Original Argument and then went to the actual Federalist Papers to read it exactly as it was written.  There could not be a better example to show how far we have deviated from the path the Founders established and why they set up safeguards in the Constitution to protect the People.  It reads as follows with the bold emphasis being mine:

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

How much more relevant can you be to what we have seen in recent years in this country, most particularly in the Obama Administration?  The Founders found all of these to be "improper or wicked projects"by dangerous factions.  These were the types of government abuses they were trying to prevent.

• a rage of paper money (what is the Federal Reserve doing?)

• an abolition of debt (what was done to the secured creditors in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies or with the bailout of Wall Street?)

• for an equal division of property (Redistribution of income and wealth through a focus on taxing the rich)

Isn't it interesting that each of these "improper or wicked projects" is also at the core of what has motivated the Tea Party?  Terrorists?  I think not.  These are the sons and daughters of the Founding Fathers united against the very factious leaders our forefathers warned us about.  

 

Improper and Wicked Projects Redux

I wrote previously about The Original Argument which is an updated writing of the Federalist Papers.  I have moved around the book reading different Papers as I have time.  It really is unfortunate that more people are not familiar with the Federalist Papers for in this contemporaneous writing we have the theories, rationale and reasoning underlying our Constitution. What is truly amazing in reading the Federalist Papers is how well our Founders understood human nature.  Power, politics, greed, fallibilities, bias, conflicting interests, oppression. There is nothing going on today that they did not anticipate.

Due to the intelligence and insights of our Founding Fathers they wrote a document that considered all of the above and more in writing the U.S. Constitution.  They knew that instability, injustice and confusion within the institution of government had caused many to fail.  They were determined to build a governmental structure that could endure for the ages.

Federalist Paper #10 was written to describe "How the Union Will Act as a Safeguard Against Domestic Division and Rebellion". They understood that opposing political factions were the greatest potential threat to any government and that in many governments the only redress was violence. They wanted to insure that factions could not wield power that would be dangerous to either the rights of other citizens or the common good.  What did they see as the most common and tangible source of potential division? The conflict between rich and poor. Here are the exact words from #10.

The most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. 

Where did they see the most danger for a majority to trample on the rights of a minority?  Taxation.

The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pockets. 

The inferior minority they are talking about?  Have you heard about the so-called 1% that is castigated continually by so many?

The Founders understood that those that governed us had to be a cut above to balance and mediate these conflicting interests and put the public interest above any special interests.  However, they also knew that this was naive. The Original Argument modern translation puts it this way.

Enlightened statesmen will not always be in power, and even if such mediation could happen, it would rarely take place with long-term interests in mind, since the immediate "here and now" interests of the party in power would most likely win the day at the expense of the rights of the other party, or the good of the whole.

Our Founding Fathers were one smart group.

They also knew that there was little they could do to prevent factions from occurring.  That could only be done by either limiting liberties or insuring every citizen has the same opinions, feelings and the same interests. Neither was acceptable to the Founders.  They had no interest in preventing the causes, which is what Communist and Totalitarian governments do.  They focused on controlling the effects of factions.  Thus, they constructed a republican governmental framework with an ultimate goal of securing both the public good and private rights against the dangers of an oppressive majority faction.  Everything in the Constitution was built on this foundational principle.

They built a government which derived all of its power directly or indirectly from the People, administered by representatives who hold their offices at the pleasure of the People, for a limited period of time, or during good behavior.  Using different time periods for holding office, including the separation of powers between the three branches of the federal government and limiting the power of the federal government relative to the states were all important foundational principles to achieve their overarching goal of facilitating majority rule but protecting minority rights.

Perhaps most applicable to today is what Federalist #10 says in the second to last paragraph.  It explains why they set up the republican form of govenrment we have and not a democracy or parliamentarian system. It literally stopped me in my tracks when I read it.  I re-read it several times in The Original Argument and then went to the actual Federalist Papers to read it exactly as it was written.  There could not be a better example to show how far we have deviated from the path the Founders established and why they set up safeguards in the Constitution to protect the People.  It reads as follows with the bold emphasis being mine:

The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States. A religious sect may degenerate into a political faction in a part of the Confederacy; but the variety of sects dispersed over the entire face of it must secure the national councils against any danger from that source. A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

How much more relevant can you be to what we have seen in recent years in this country, most particularly in the Obama Administration?  The Founders found all of these to be "improper or wicked projects"by dangerous factions.  These were the types of government abuses they were trying to prevent.  However, we see calls for each of these "projects" almost everyday from those in power in Washington.

• a rage of paper money (what is the Federal Reserve doing?)

• an abolition of debt (what was done to the secured creditors in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies, with the bailout of Wall Street?  What do we hear should be done about mortgage and student loan debt by many liberals?)

• for an equal division of property (Redistribution of income and wealth through a focus on taxing the rich, in particular the very small 1% minority)

Isn't it interesting that each of these "improper or wicked projects" is also at the core of what motivated the Tea Party?  Terrorists?  I think not.  These are the sons and daughters of the Founding Fathers united against the very factious leaders our forefathers warned us about.

It seems that if we are looking for guidance on how to solve are many problems we should return to some of our key foundation principles.  It is right there in the Federalist Papers for all to see.