U.S. constitution, article 1, section 1

By Paul R. Reeder

All legislative powers shall be vested in a congress

Article 1, section 1 of the U.S. Constitution states: "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives."

Under the current administation, we have seen more power ammased in the executive branch of government than in any other time in our history. Our own president is constantly usurping power into his office in the name of "protecting the people". We see this in his "signing statements" of legislation that makes it to his desk. Under the law, he is only allowed a veto or the signing of the bill into law. Now, he will take a bill and ammend it to his liking and alter it by his "interpretation" and then sign it into law, in effect performing legislative powers. Congress also has the power to declare war, the greatest power that it possesses. But in the current war, congress in effect told the president "you decide". What a just president would have done was to say, "no, you decide, you are the congress and under the constitution only you have that power". Instead, our leader took this new power unto himself and went to the U.N. to get authorization, setting an even more dangerous precedent.

We are told that all of this is being done to protect us. Let us remember the timeless words of James Madison who said," If tyranny and opression ever come to America, it will be in the name of fightning a foreign enemy". Today, we have that perfect "enemy" and it's name is terrorism. Terrorism is not a country, it is not even a geographical location or a people group. It is not even a person or a group of people. Terrorism is a tactic. How can you declare war on a tactic? The reason this was done was so our government can have an excuse to continue to perpetuate itself and limit our rights. Let me say this, our real threat is not from the terrorists, but from our own government. The terrorists can only attack us if we are vulnerable and it is our governments design to make us so because they are the benefactors. The terrorists cannot change our laws, only our own government can. We will only be free an long as our leaders have their feet held to the fire by those whom they represent.