Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, October 5,2011
- THREE
Constitutional scholar says federal government has
expanded its powers beyond intent of the Constitution
Lewis & Clark faculty member holds town hall meeting and visits Heppner and lone schools
states have lost power to the
By David Sykes
Jim
Huffman, federal government, and
Constitution
scholar he covered several current
topics that he says
at
Lewis
&
will test the federal
Clark
College
g o v e r n m e n t ’s
and former US
future limits to its
Senate candidate,
authority over our
visited the area
lives.
recently as part of
Huffman
Constitution week Jim
says the biggest
from September 17 Huffman
test right now is
to September 23.
Obamacare.
He
Huffman put on
programs at both Heppner says the main question is
and lone schools, as well the individual mandate, or
as an evening town hall whether the government
has the authority to make
meeting in Heppner.
you buy a product, in this
H u f f m a n
covered many areas of case health insurance.
the
Constitution,
and The constitutional legal
answered questions from argument they are using in
the audience at a town favor of this power is the
hall meeting in Heppner. A Commerce Clause of the
central part of his message Constitution, which gives
was that the Constitution the government the right to
and the Bill of Rights were regulate commerce across
not written to grant rights state lines, Huffman says.
“If you
don’t
to Americans, but to protect
in
health
those rights from intrusion participate
by the government.
insurance
(Obamacare)
He said rights then you are self insuring
inherently
belong
to and therefore participating
the people and that the in commerce, which can be
government does not have regulated (by the federal
the authority to grant government),” Huffman
or not grant them to the says in explaining the
people. He said the Bill of federal government’s legal
Rights spells out the rights rationale for Obamacare’s
inherent to all citizens of constitutionality. He said
America.
Oregon’s Attorney General
Huffman pointed John Kroger was the only
out that over the years the AG in the United States
to write a brief in favor of
the government having this
right.
He said over the
years the Commerce Clause
has been the main tool
used to expand the powers
of the federal government,
allowing control over many
more areas of our lives not
originally intended by the
makers o f the Constitution.
Huffman pointed out that
the Commerce Clause was
originally set up to keep
states from throwing up
tariffs and regulations on
interstate commerce.
T
h
e
constitutionality of the
individual mandate is
expected to go to the
Supreme Court and be
decided,
possibly
by
June of 2012, Huffman
said. He expects the court
to rule that Obamacare
is
unconstitutional.
If Obamacare is found
constitutional,
Huffman
said, it would be possible
to repeal the law but a
veto-proof congress would
probably be needed. He
said the government is
currently
building
up
public and private entities
that are already receiving
money from Obamacare,
and this would make it
difficult to undo the law.
“They are buying
support,” Huffman says.
“When a piece of legislation
hands out goodies it is
impossible to get rid of it.
“It will create a
huge mess,” he says, “but
what we already have is a
mess. The best thing to do
is start over,” he says on
health care legislation.
Other
recent
actions by the Obama
Administration
that
concern him, Huffman
says, are actions by the
Environmental Protection
Agency and the National
Labor Relations Board.
He says the EPA feels it
has the right to regulate
carbon emissions and the
ozone. He said if the EPA
has that much power,
there is very little in our
lives that it cannot at some
point regulate. He also
questioned a move by the
Federal NRLB to prevent
the
Boeing Company
from relocating one of its
production facilities to a
right-to-work state.
“Where did the
president get the authority
to do this? Where did he
get the authority to take
over a private company in
General Motors?” Huffman
asked.
He said many of
our current leaders say,
“What ever we want to do
we will do.”
“I see that a lot in the
Obama Administration,”
Huffman said.
On other issues,
Huffman
questioned
if people
sitting
in
Washington DC have the
knowledge or experience
to manage the federal
forests in Oregon.
“The idea that we
are going to manage the
forest from Washington
DC is ludicrous,” he says.
On
passing
a
balanced
budget
amendment,
which
would force the federal
government to spend only
what it takes in with no
debt, Huffman says it is
the only way to constrain
spending.
“The
benefits
(of a balanced budget
amendment) outweigh the
downside,” he says. “I
think we need a balanced
budget and don’t think
there is any other way. We
are on the way to being
Greek (a country currently
with so much debt it is in
default).”
In the end Huffman
said the answer to the
erosion of Constitutional
rights is not the court
system, but in the election
of people who respect and
uphold the Constitution. He
said when electing people
from the county level to
state to national office,
voters should find out their
stand on the Constitution.
“After all, they all
take an oath to uphold the
Constitution,” he said.
Huffman
was
invited here to speak by the
Willow Creek Tea Party
Patriots, and he praised
the nation-wide Tea Party
for its grass roots efforts to
uphold the constitution.
“One
of
the
results of the Tea Party
movement
has
been
that people are talking
about the Constitution,”
Huffman said. “It is a great
thing to have a grassroots
movement to learn about
the Constitution.”
Harvest
Festival on
Sunday
Heppner Christian
Church’s annual Harvest
Festival will be held this
coming Sunday, October
9 at 6 p.m. in the church’s
fellowship hall.
There will be food,
music and a guest speaker.
The community is invited.
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HEPPNER
PENDLETON
P hone: (541)676-9228
C ell: (541)980-6674
Fax: (541)676-9211
188 W. Willow
P.O. Box 337
Heppner, OR 97836
da vid@ s ykes ramies tate, net
www.syke3realeatate.net
Phone: (541)276-2152
C ell: (541)215-2274
Fax: (541)278-6051
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25 SW Emigrant
Pendleton, OR 97801
chhs@sykasraalastata.nat
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