More on paying attention.

On Sunday, March 29, George Will wrote in the Washington Post:

"It is high time Americans heard an argument that might turn a vague national uneasiness into a vivid awareness of something going very wrong. The argument is that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) is unconstitutional. (Emphasis mine)

By enacting it, Congress did not in any meaningful sense make a law. Rather, it made executive branch officials into legislators. Congress said to the executive branch, in effect: "Here is $700 billion. You say you will use some of it to buy up banks' 'troubled assets.' But if you prefer to do anything else with the money -- even, say, subsidize automobile companies -- well, whatever."

FreedomWorks, a Washington-based libertarian advocacy organization, argues that EESA violates "the nondelegation doctrine." Although the text does not spell it out, the Constitution's logic and structure -- particularly the separation of powers -- imply limits on the size and kind of discretion that Congress may confer on the executive branch.

The Vesting Clause of Article I says, "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in" Congress. All. Therefore, none shall be vested elsewhere. "

Will goes on to make his point clear, but it is obvious from the above that Congress has vested in the Executive Branch the authority to decide how this money is spent!

The Constitution is not a collection of legal mumbo-jumbo. It is very simple to understand, try it:

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in Congress.

To paraphrase a popular question, What part of ALL do they not understand?

In another crystal-clear directive, the Constitution says Congress shall write no law abridging freedom of speech. Again, that is no law. Yet Congress persists in their efforts to ban this or that speech.

Is FreedomWorks the only ones paying attention? Now that they have gotten our attention, what are we going to do about it?