All Legislative Powers Herein Granted Shall Be Vested In A Congress Of The United States

This is a photo posted by Senator Mike Lee (one of the good guys) of a shelf containing all the regulations passed this year by unelected federal bureaucrats working for agencies under the Executive Branch.  You see folks, this is something that few understand, forgive me if you already know this but permit me to explain to those that might not understand.  Article I, Section I of the United States Constitution vests ALL lawmaking power in THE Congress (Article I Branch).  NO lawmaking power is vested in ANY OTHER BRANCH.  Congress over the years has created federal agencies (IRS, HHS, DOJ, EPA, etc...and on and on).  You or I could debate the merits of any of these agencies, most in my opinion are absolutely unnecessary at the federal level and maybe unnecessary altogether. However, honest people can debate that and disagree on the merits of each.  What we CANNOT debate, is the fact that our Constitution was set up to permit only ONE branch to make laws so that you and I could have a say in the lawmaking process through the ballot box every two years.

When Congress set up these agencies over the years and handed them over to the Executive Branch (Article II), they DIRECTLY handed over the power to legislate to these agencies and in effect handed legislative power directly to the President.  These agencies pass regulations to the tune of THOUSANDS of pages every year, the photo below that Mike Lee sent out shows just the pages of regulations (laws) that were put into place in these agencies to TORMENT you (think IRS, EPA, HHS/Obamacare....) and they are written by faceless people behind closed doors with ZERO accountability.

Look at the stack of regulations, 80,000 pages alone in 2013. Then look at the small stack of paper on top the shelf, that is the paper from laws actually passed by Congress in comparison.  Do you see what has been done here? Most of the regulations (Laws) passed by these agencies destroy business and torment citizens with oppressive confiscatory taxes and our Congress can turn around and tell us that they didn't do it...the executive agencies did it....therefore, the end result is no one is accountable.

 

Understand this important principle so that you can let these folks know that you are on to them whenever you get the chance.  These kinds things show how broken our federal government really is. I is high time for the states to get together and demand some changes.  The folks we send to Washington, by and large are not going to address this.  Know this, they can address this...but they have no intention whatsoever of doing anything about it. They wring their hands and point the finger at the Executive as if they don't know anything about Article I, Section I and the Constitutional mandate that only CONGRESS enact laws. They established these agencies, they can de establish them...they can cut off funding using the power vested in them in Article I, Section 7, but they refuse to do that too. We recently got to see this dereliction of duty in the House of Representatives when they had the opportunity in a continuing resolution for funding to defund the so called Affordable Care Act and they refused to do it.

Join us at the Convention of States Project.  The COS is the lawful, orderly, Constitutional route to driving a stake in the heart of the runaway federal government.

The Congress "shall call a convention."

Hamilton made it clear in Federalist 85 that Congress must call a Convention when 2/3rds of the states apply.

"By the fifth article of the plan, the Congres will be obliged "on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the States [which at present amount to nine], to call a convention for proposing amendments, which shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof." The words of this article are peremptory. The Congress "shall call a convention." Nothing in this particular is left to the discretion of that body. And of consequence, all the declamation about the disinclination to a change vanishes in air". - Alexander Hamilton Federalist 85

Nothing is perfect. What we do know and can take to the bank is that the "National Legislature" to use George Mason's term, is going to do nothing to change its present trajectory. They will not do anything to curtail the leviathan federal government that is for all intents and purposes, out of control. It is out of control due to decades of perversion of the Rule of Law (Constitution). The 2nd mode of Article V grants the states the vehicle to end run Washington and "reset" the language or clarify the language of areas that are most abused, i.e. the Commerce clause and the General Welfare clause etc... The founders made this very clear, they told us, it's right there in Madison's notes of the Federal Convention of 1787. June 11 and Sep 15 of 1787 in particular, carry the events that surround the adoption of the 2nd mode of Article V. George Mason specifically advocated for this end run when he said "no amendments of the proper kind would ever be obtained by the people, if the Government should become oppressive".

At the end of the day so to speak, you can disagree with the COS strategy and those of us that are advocating for this... good people can disagree. It will come down to whether you think our present course of action of electing more people to Washington that tell us they will do something....and we wait, and wait, and wait...and but save a few...they stab us in the back once they begin to taste the intoxicating power of Washington...It will come down to whether you think that strategy is working.
At the Convention of States Project....we've had enough. That strategy is clearly not working and we're ready to use what the founders/framers gave us in Article V.  They are screaming at us from 1787 to use what they gave us. It's not perfect and it wont be easy, but it is the lawful and orderly process written into the Constitution for the people of the states to deal with an out of control federal government.