This started out as a comment on this post, but then it started getting long-winded, and I remembered: I’m a blogger, too! So here goes.

I think mandatory sunset clauses are a good idea. I also like the idea (Neal Boortz has mentioned this a lot) of requiring every bill to cite the specific part of the Constitution that enumerates the power being exercised by the bill.

For example, let’s say Ted Kennedy introduces a bill to ban “armor-piercing cop-killer bullets.” OK, Senator Kennedy: which paragraph of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution says that the Congress has the power to ban such bullets? Of course, he would claim it falls under “regulating commerce among the several states.”

This word “regulate” appears a few times in the Constitution, and, as with most English words, has more than one meaning. Which one was intended here (and in the 2nd amendment)? Does “regulate commerce among the several states” mean “make the commerce uniform,” or does it mean “burden the commerce with rules?” Hard to imagine which definition Senator Kennedy would choose.

I shouldn’t pick on Senator Kennedy. I’m hard pressed to think of ANY politician at any level who thinks that maybe he isn’t supposed to pass just any law he wants to. Would making them cite the Constitutional authority for their proposed law solve this problem? Probably not, but at least it might get them to actually READ the thing, at least once.

Posted in uncategorized on March 4th, 2004 by Thibodeaux | RSS 2.0 |