Guest post by Ted Malloch author of The Plot to Destroy Trump
Big Deal the US government is (partially) shut down.
Close it down permanently to get a wall.
You would think, according to the mainstream liberal media, that the world was coming to an end.
Keep calm and focus.
There have been 20 shutdowns in modern US history.
Six in the 1970s, ranging from 8 to 17 days in length.
The longest was back in 1995 for 3 weeks sending federal workers home.
Did the country collapse then?
Did Americans truly suffer?
Do we have TOO much government, anyway?
This came during the gridlock of the Clinton Administration. It was a Democrat President.
Truthfully, going way back, the Congress and President often disagree. The separation of powers was intended to have this competing effect.
And closing government down is one way to try and accomplish a political agenda.
Maybe closing a part of the government every few weeks would actually be a good idea, anyway.
There is a reason after all for why they call them “non-essential” government employees.
In Belgium recently, they went a whole year and a half without having a government.
Some shutdowns work, others don’t.
It didn’t stop Obamacare in the name of the Affordable Care Act.
This latest attempt revolves around a paltry $5 Billion to complete the needed anti-immigration wall along our southern border.
It is something Democrats themselves are on record saying they wanted, namely, border control, a barrier and security—until Trump made it a keystone of his campaign.
The total US budget is $3.8 trillion dollars.
So $5 Billion is just 0.00132 of that amount.
Why are we arguing over it?
The issue represents a much bigger quandary and philosophy of limited — or not so limited government.
In the preamble to the United States Constitution the phrase, “a more perfect union” is employed to describe the purpose for creating government.
That phrase has at times been misconstrued and inappropriately applied.
Recall when then-candidate Obama used it is a speech in Philadelphia by that very name to steer free of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who had “God-damned America.”
Obama wanted to get past race baiting and free himself from the shackles of language, which would have plagued his campaign.
Ironically, such ‘damning’ later came to embody his entire presidency.
But what is the real meaning of Limited Government?
It should be defined as a “system in which legalized force is restricted through delegated and enumerated powers.”
In other words, it is the exact opposite of what we have experienced over the last eight years of Democrat rule.
This idea stems from classical liberalism, free (economic) markets, and conservatism in the earliest days of the United States.
Bound by the Constitution, it systematically maintains principles of action that are spelled out in that Constitution.
In the US, this idea of Limited Government originated specifically in the notion of separation of powers and a system of checks and balances.
The US Bill of Rights, in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, outline once and for all and in clear, unambiguous terms, what the principles of Limited Government implied. i.e., the enumerated rights of the people vs. the expressly delegated powers of the federal government.
Limited Government, you see, stands in harsh contrast to the older doctrine of Divine Rights of Kings (or modern day executives, presidents for life, dictators, klepocrats or the Clintons), where the King or executive alone holds unlimited sovereignty over their subjects.
Eight centuries ago we saw the major milestone and turning point in Western Civilization, the Magna Carta.
It remains the exemplar of a doctrine LIMITING the reach of sovereignty.
But it was only in 1787, and in the United States Constitution, that we witnessed a government limited by the terms of the written document itself, the election of legislators by the people, and balancing the three branches of government by each other’s powers.
Law restricts In Limited Government the power of government to intervene in the exercise of civil liberties.
Government, by definition, cannot mandate equality through regulation of property and wealth redistribution.
Reread the Federalist Papers, if in doubt. Madison, writing as Publius, made this case.
So the pertinent question today is: does President Donald Trump believe in and will he continue to respect the tradition of Limited Government?
His words are as forthright as Madison’s and embody a resounding “yes.”
Trump is a strict Constitutionalist, has no expectations to usurp power or to grow the government.
To the contrary, he has said he will give more powers and redirect funding to the States and use checks and balances as they were originally conceived.
He will limit both executive powers and ask Congress and the courts to do the same. In other words, power will be returned “to the people.”
This is the kernel of Trump’s populism and it is as basic as the Boston Tea Party or the shots fired in Lexington by farmer militiamen.
All said, Trump wants government to be smaller, more efficient, more frugal, and wants it to use management principles and best practices, so as to be more excellent, i.e., we will actually get the services for which our hard earned tax monies were contributed.
Under Trump, we may be seeing Limited Government for the first time in sixty years.
Trump himself said, “Common sense tell us that the two basic principles of governing should work anywhere they are applied. First: Get government out of activities it can’t do well. (A list of thing government doesn’t do well is a very long list.) Second: Get government back in the business of providing for public convenience (transportation, public works) and safety (police and firefighters), and make sure it does so efficiently. Then judge its efforts by visible, definable results and fine-tuned, as needed.”
He complains constantly about “government incompetence” and cronyism. He promises “great management” of the Limited Government we need.
He wants to employ all the skills from the private sector and deliver.
As an entrepreneur, a doer and a builder, he wants to allow every American to succeed, so as to make America great, again.
That narrative means Limited Government and maximum prosperity.
Such a powerful combination would work to achieve what America’s Founders intended.
Those very Founding father knew it wasn’t government that bestowed rights upon the American people.
They firmly held that it was God who gave these rights to men and as such they cannot be regulated, legislated or taken away by any man.
The Founding was greatly influenced by the philosopher, John Locke.
Locke advocated government as a social contract.
The term, “will of the governed”, summarizes this concept, and it was meant to show that the American people are the directors of those elected not vice versa.
The power of the people is declared in the first three words of our Constitution, “We the people.”
This principle is also the underlying basis for the Declaration of Independence, which is revealed in these words:
“Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
Trump simply wants Limited Government.
He is willing to shut it down to make the point and also to ensure that the American citizenry is safe and secure in these United States.
List of All Government Shutdowns and their Duration
This list of government shutdowns in the past was drawn from Congressional Research Service reports:
- 2018 (President Donald Trump): Jan. 20 to Jan. 23 – 3 days
- 2018 (President Donald Trump): Feb. 9 – 1 day.
- 2013 (President Barack Obama): Oct. 1 to Oct. 17 – 16 days
- 1995-1996 (President Bill Clinton): December 5, 1995, to January 6, 1996, – 21 days
- 1995 (President Bill Clinton): Nov. 13 to 19 – 5 days
- 1990 (President George H.W. Bush): October 5 to 9 – 3 days
- 1987 (President Ronald Reagan): December 18 to December 20 – 1 day
- 1986 (President Ronald Reagan): October 16 to October 18 – 1 day
- 1984 (President Ronald Reagan): October 3 to October 5 – 1 day
- 1984 (President Ronald Reagan): September 30 to October 3 – 2 days
- 1983 (President Ronald Reagan): November 10 to November 14 – 3 days
- 1982 (President Ronald Reagan): December 17 to December 21 – 3 days
- 1982 (President Ronald Reagan): September 30 to October 2 – 1 day
- 1981 (President Ronald Reagan): November 20 to November 23 – 2 days
- 1979 (President Jimmy Carter): September 30 to October 12 – 11 days
- 1978 (President Jimmy Carter): September 30 to October 18 days
- 1977 (President Jimmy Carter): November 30 to December 9 – 8 days
- 1977 (President Jimmy Carter): October 31 to November 9 – 8 days
- 1977 (President Jimmy Carter): September 30 to October 13 – 12 days
- 1976 (President Gerald Ford): September 30 to October 11 – 10 days
Ted Malloch is the author of The Plot to Destroy Trump
The post Ted Malloch: Hooray for President Trump! He is Willing to Shut Down Govt. to Ensure the American Citizenry is Safe and Secure appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.