From: gt38091@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Greg )
Subject: Re: Presidential Line-Item Veto Power
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 18:49:26 GMT

veal@utkvm1.utk.edu (David L. Veal) writes:

>     What is the case for all practical purposes and what *should* be the
>case are two different things.  Everything the government can do legally
>*is* spelled out in the Constitution.  That is the idea behind a limited
>government.  The Constitution has an amendment process in order to deal with
>things that "come up."
>     What you fail to realize is that most of the things people say have 
>"come up" and the Constitution needs to deal with were never intended to
>be a function of the Federal Government.  Those things that have come up
>that do need to be done nationally (like, say, the environment) need to
>be amended.
>     There is no point in writing your government down if you don't follow
>what's on the paper.

well, that's true to a certain extent, but you are forgetting one important
point that our Constitution is great because it is flexible to a certain
extent.


>>hmmn...isn't that one major difference between democrats and republicans in
>>that republicans have been trying to get government out of areas where it has
>>no business...i.e deregulation???...does that make democrats unconstitutional???
>     They *both* support unconstitutional legislation.  The Republicans and
>the Democrats are more alike than you think.

my little blurb up there was an attempt at being funny:)


>     Whatever *is* in the Constitution is law.  The Supreme Court, using
>their own set of implied powers that are not listed in the Constitution,
>interpret that law.

i never disputed that fact, yet our Founding Fathers had the foresight to 
allow for the fact that times change, since we can not reasonably expect to
advance as a nation if we are limited to an explicit, never-changing set
of rules that would get more and more dated as time goes on...


>     Look at the provision for the Supreme Court in the Constitution.
>Judicial Review is an "implied" power, not an enumerated one.

i never said that judicial review was enumerated in the Constitution...what
i said is that the Constitution says that there will be a Supreme Court, and 
that it's decisions shall be the "supreme law of the land"


>     The government is their to protect our rights, among other things.

i never said that it wasn't...i was merely listing some things off the top
of my head.


>     The "necessary and proper" clause give the Congress the power to make 
>all laws "which shall be necessary and proper to carry into execution the
>foregoing powers."  Which means that the Congress may make laws relating to
>those powers, and only those powers, which are specifically granted it
>in Article I, Section 8.
>     It does not grant any unlimited ability to make laws they deem 
>appropriate.

yes!...that's precisely my point...our Founding Fathers could not have 
possibly written a document that would SPECIFICALLY tell the government what
it could do in EVERY situation that could arise...that's what is so beautiful
about the Constitution...it has endured for 200 years because of it's ability
to accomadate changing times!


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* Gregory Tao                      | E-mail to:  gt38091@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu     * 
* Univ. of IL at Urbana-Champaign  |        OR      gtao@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu     *
* Department of Computer Science   |        OR      gtao@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu     *
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*                                                                             *
*  	``Change, suddenly, is everywhere we look, sweeping empires and       *
*    ideologies before it, shaping a new era even as we watch. Such moments   *
*    are rare. Today we stand at such a moment.''                             * 
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Xref: sparky talk.politics.misc:34913 alt.politics.clinton:113