22 Oct 2020 Where to View Gary DeMar's Daily Articles
21 May 2020 'Socialism for Thee but not for Me'
20 May 2020 Does the Bible Teach that the World Will End?
19 May 2020 The State's Goal is to Control the Family
18 May 2020 Ruled by God's Laws or Ruled by the Dictates of the State
15 May 2020 The 'What Ifs' of History and What Might Have Been
14 May 2020 John Piper, the Coronavirus, and the End Times
12 May 2020 Is Politics Outside the Scope of the Christian Worldview?
ConstitutionEconomicsLawPolitics
The Thief-in-Chief
Gary DeMar 2011-09-19
Gary DeMar
President Obama is calling for more tax hikes for the "rich." This is the same president who took an oath to uphold the Constitution. While President Obama might be envious of the rich and despise the rich, he has no constitutional authority to rob the rich. If he wants to appeal to the rich to donate money to help the less "fortunate," then he is free to do so. But to use the power of government to take money from one group of citizens so it can be given to other citizens is a violation of his constitutional oath as well as a violation of the Eighth Commandment: "Thou shalt not steal," even if it means trying to shore up a faltering presidency. Here are some comments from our nation's earliest founders who know something about the nature of the Constitution and the limitation of governmental powers:
"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." — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816
"A wise and frugal government… shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." — Thomas Jefferson, "First Inaugural Address," March 4, 1801
"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated." — Thomas Jefferson
"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free." — John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787
"With respect to the two words 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." — James Madison in a letter to James Robertson
In 1794, when Congress appropriated $15,000 for relief of French refugees who fled from insurrection in San Domingo to Baltimore and Philadelphia, James Madison stood on the floor of the House to object saying: "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." — James Madison, Annals of Congress 4:179, 1794
"[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." — James Madison
A Conservative's Very Bad Idea
"The Tenth Amendment is a Bunch of Baloney"
Where to View Gary DeMar's Daily Articles
'Socialism for Thee but not for Me'
Does the Bible Teach that the World Will End?
The State's Goal is to Control the Family
Ruled by God's Laws or Ruled by the Dictates of the State
The 'What Ifs' of History and What Might Have Been
John Piper, the Coronavirus, and the End Times