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Jeff Miller Newsletter for June 26, 2011

It is quite appalling to watch as the Constitution of the United States of America is dismantled by its beneficiaries, but that is exactly what TIME Magazine is doing this week.  The cover of TIME’s July 4th issue runs our nation’s founding document through the shredder, accompanied by Managing Editor Richard Stengel’s editorial that asks “Does the Constitution Matter?”.

Maybe TIME’s question is a rhetorical one, but let me answer it unequivocally:  the Constitution does matter.  It matters to the American people who look to it as the set of guiding principles for our government.  It matters to those in public service who fight day in and day out to uphold those principles.  And it matters to the American warriors who give their lives on the battlefield to defend the very freedom endowed to us by our Creator and secured for us by our Constitution. 

TIME annuls the Constitution’s modern day relevance in suggesting it does not apply to weighty issues like Libya, the Debt Ceiling, Obamacare, and Immigration.  However, it fails to mask the extreme liberal bent of its author who claims the Constitution allows the federal government to make any law at any time.  In one stroke, Mr. Stengel broadens the boundaries of the Constitution while simultaneously brushing over the principles of limited government and individual liberty that are the cornerstones of this country. 

Our Constitution provides for a central government more solid than that of the Articles of Confederation, but it explicitly limits the extent of this power.  In one glaring example, Stengel validates Obamacare’s mandate that individuals purchase health insurance by contorting the Interstate Commerce Clause to include anything that involves a good or service.  By this measure, one could find a part of the enumerated powers and interpret it in any manner they choose. 

Perhaps Mr. Stengel stopped reading the Constitution after it was ratified 1789.  Not once does this former President of the National Constitution Center mention the Bill of Rights in his 4,800 word essay.  Anyone who has ever taken a civics class knows that the Bill of Rights is an integral part of the Constitution – in fact, it’s the very part of the Constitution that limits the reach of government.  In his article, there’s no discussion on the First Amendment’s right to freedom of speech and expression of religion.  There’s no mention of our Second Amendment right to bear arms.  There’s no word of our Fifth Amendment right to due process.  And what about the 10th Amendment?  You know, the Amendment that states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” It doesn’t merit a single remark by TIME Magazine. 

So much for an impartial media.

For the world’s largest weekly news magazine, surgically extracting phrases from the Constitution to provide cover to a liberal agenda of bigger government is neither factually correct nor morally sound.  It’s just bad journalism. 

In a final blow to the Constitution, Mr. Stengel mistranslates and inflates a Latin phrase on the silence of laws during times of war to argue that “the Constitution is silent much of the time.”  But the Constitution is not silent and it will not be silenced by a Democrat speechwriter turned liberal journalist with a passion for boundless government. 

The U.S. Constitution is the very foundation of our country.  It is the bedrock on which our nation has stood for 223 years.  It is the standard by which all laws must be measured, and it is a standard by which we should measure ourselves.  TIME Magazine might be able to shred a copy of the Constitution on their cover.  But, they can never shred the real Constitution because it is more than just a piece of parchment.  It encompasses our American ideal of individual liberty and our American principle of limited government.  The Constitution is America. 

And it matters.

The Recovery Summer that Never Happened

Just over a year ago this week, President Obama announced the Administration’s three month victory lap to celebrate the “success” of his stimulus plan.  It was supposed to be the “Recovery Summer,” as the President coined it.  Looking back, however, he should have called it the Lost Summer.  If the President fails to work with House leadership, we will be facing Lost Summer, Part 2. 

A year later, the economic situation hasn’t improved one bit.  Unless the Administration’s idea of a “Recovery Summer” is a loss of 1.9 million jobs and an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, President Obama’s plan failed miserably.  The Administration offers only excuses behind the high unemployment rate.  They blame the Bush Administration’s economic policies.  Yet, the current Administration has been in power for two and a half years.  It’s time for the President to take ownership of the economic future of this country.  The Administration then blames Congress for its woes.  Yet, House Republicans have put forward an extensive plan to create jobs immediately and sustain our long-term economic future.  It’s time for the President to put aside partisan brinksmanship and to work with us to put forward a solution. 

We’ve also heard a lot of talk about a “jobless recovery.”  Some officials are pointing to a growing GDP as signs of an improving economy.  But, an anemic growth rate of 1.8 percent in the 1st quarter of 2011 isn’t putting Americans back to work.  Americans don’t feel the “recovery” because they are still out of work.  Businesses are afraid to hire because they fear higher taxes and more regulations.  As more and more of the Obama health care law takes effect, employers are cutting back or seeking waivers from the bill’s extremely onerous regulations.  If you look back at the President’s statements on the health care bill, he told the American people it would create 4 million jobs, 400 thousand of which would be “almost immediately.”  A year later, where are those jobs?

The Administration’s solution is to put more and more people on welfare rolls.  There are now roughly 45 million Americans receiving welfare, the highest number in U.S. history.  That equates to about 15 percent of the entire U.S. population who cannot afford to provide for the basic needs of their families.

The time for excuses has come to an end.  The President and the Senate need to work with House Republicans to sign into law a solution that will put Americans back to work.  We’ve passed bills to repeal tax increases found in the health care bill.  We’ve passed bills to prevent tax hikes for at least two years.  We’ve passed bills to limit the reach of executive regulations that stifle business development.  We’ve passed a budget that would reduce federal spending significantly and instead invest in free-market enterprise and private business, the very foundation of our nation.

It’s all about the jobs.  House Republicans are focused on job creation, job growth, and job stability.  I challenge my Senate colleagues and the President to do the same.  Let’s put aside partisan rhetoric and hollow phrases like “Recovery Summer” and instead concentrate more on putting people back to work.  Americans don’t want another summer gimmick.  They want a steady job, a sound economic policy, and a secure future for our country.