Congressional Constitution Caucus

Can you describe what the 10th ammendment was designed to do? What is the main purpose of our Bill of Rights?

Well, the answer to the second question might surprise you if you have not spent much time studying our constitution or the intentions of our founding fathers when they established our government. The purpose of the Bill of Rights is to limit the power of the federal government. The 10th ammendment points out that powers not specifially given to the federal government in the constitution are reserved for the states or the people. The federal government is not to assume powers or roles not specifically assigned to it by the constitution.

Heh heh...I guess that has been ignored for oh, say, about 100 years?

Well, a new Congressional Constitution Caucus hopes to change all that.

Here is their mission statement:

The Congressional Constitution Caucus will be an effective forum to ensure that the Federal government is operating under the intent of the Tenth Amendment of our Bill of Rights.

The Tenth Amendment states:

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.

These historic words, penned by our Founding Fathers, some of the most ingenious political minds this world has ever known, set forth an important principle: The Federal government may exercise the specific powers that are listed in the Constitution, and the States and the people may exercise all remaining powers.

Unfortunately, as the authors of the Constitution have long since passed, so too have many of their foundations for our system of government. Between an ever-expanding Federal bureaucracy that for decades has crept into many facets of traditionally locally controlled government to a Federal judiciary that time and time again completely ignores the intent of the Tenth Amendment, the Federal government has become wildly inefficient and is hemorrhaging tax dollars.

The Congressional State and Community Rights Caucus will point out that not only is state and local control over programs in line with the Constitution, it is a much more cost-effective and efficient way to provide many domestic services to American citizens.

In light of the looming fiscal crisis of our Federal budget and domestic programs that are simply not reaching their intended goals, it is imperative to highlight the need to return to a system intended under the “reserve clause” of the Constitution.

Here are some of the bills they are backing:

1. An education bill (H.R. 3449) sponsored by Rep. John Culberson (R.-Tex.) that would give states back control of their schools

2. Sunsetting bills (such as H.R. 1227) offered by Rep. Kevin Brady (R.-Tex.) and others that would allow for an evaluation and termination of government programs that are no longer useful.

3. And a bill that would limit the duration of Federal consent decrees to which state and local governments are a party (H.R. 1229) sponsored by Rep. Roy Blunt (R.-Mo.)

Rep. Virginia Foxx, member of the caucus states, "....(g0vernment's) main focus was not supposed to be programs such as welfare and medicaid."

"The number one role of the federal government is defense of the nation," she said. "We've lost sight of that."

Click on the title to read the rest of the article at Human Events.

---Katie