[detbuch]

Debating what restrictions or requirements should be attached to the use of food stamps is anti-American. Not only does it further implant in us the idea that government can tell us how to spend our money, it's just another acceptance and affirmation that the Federal Government has dictatory powers that it was not intended to have. If we are going to go that far, perhaps the government can deny the right to vote to those who accept food stamps as well as dictating what foods and in what quantities the stamps will purchase. That would solve the problem of a huge portion of the population having a say in how the others who provide the money are taxed. The whole concept is not only anti-American, there is no provision in the Constitution which gives the Federal Government the authority to provide food stamps.

I know . . . I know . . . the SCOTUS has interpreted . . . etc. But the Constitution is specific, not vague. There is no specific or general power listed in it for the Federal Gvt. to issue food stamps to certain persons. Madison said:

". . . the government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the State governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of government [meaning the Federal Gvt.]"

The charitable aspect of government was clearly to be left to the States and to the people, not to the Federal Government. Madison, Jefferson, (and even Hamilton who many say believed in very broad powers of the central government), all stated that the General Welfare Clause referred specifically to those powers enumerated in the Constitution.

OK . . . OK . . . so it's too late . . . the damage has been done. Well . . . this is exactly the kind of crap that has been heaped on American society in this and many other ways because that document has been "interpreted" to allow it. And if the direction taken continues . . . well . . . the whole concept of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness will be "interpreted" in a far different, government-dependent way.