Quote of the day—James Madison

I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.

James Madison
1794
For context and related quotes see here.
[It’s too bad we don’t have still have a constitution Madison would recognize. If we did we wouldn’t be in the middle of an economic and financial crisis.—Joe]

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6 thoughts on “Quote of the day—James Madison

  1. Joe, it isn’t the Constitution he wouldn’t recognize; it is the US Congress and president that regularly ignores it, the Supreme Court that regularly subverts it, and the general voting population that not only lets them get away with it, but up to recently encourages it. However, as they sang about in the 60’s, “times, they are a’changin”. Hopefully, the latent American spirit is waking up to the fact that our liberty is directly threatened by an overreaching federal government. THAT is hope and change I can believe in.

  2. Benevolence demands free will. A system of coercion (taxation) for the purpose of benevolence is an oxymoronic concept.

    You may want with all your heart to “help the poor” etc., but as soon as you advocate or even accept using force to give someone else’s money to the poor, you have fallen from grace.

    Those who claim that Jesus was a socialist are in deep denial.

    I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Bible in which Jesus advocated the use of wholesale extortion for the sake of benevolence.

    What many fail (or refuse) to understand is that there are basically two operating systems that can be used to accomplish something; coercion and liberty. Which would you rather? Choose quickly, because one destroys the other.

  3. @ubu52, What is your point? A pension for having been injured while serving in the military, or a pension for the widows of servicemen is not the same as giving tax money to “the unfortunate” person who is out of work, a drug addict, had their house burn down, or is a refugee from a foreign country. One is part of a compensation package for services rendered and the other an attempt at “charity” with someone else’s money.

  4. “A pension for having been injured while serving in the military, or a pension for the widows of servicemen is not the same as giving tax money to “the unfortunate” person who is out of work, a drug addict, had their house burn down, or is a refugee from a foreign country.”

    Do you know what the best thing we can do for these people? Stop taxing them, stop regulating them, and just get out of their way! Most of us are very good at donating to charities, helping those in need, and finding work for ourselves and others–unless the government is there, taking the money we would use to create work for others, and tying up our actions in paperwork and restrictions. Those who are addicted to drugs would be better served being able to freely choose recovery programs, rather than be put in jail–and putting them in jail only puts them in an environment where they can learn the ropes of the Black Market of drugs, theft, and murder.

    Our illegal immigrants can be our greatest resource–but we force them to commit identity theft, just to get a bank account or a job!

    There was a time, once, when we understood that the refuse of the world, when given freedom, would become our greatest asset. Now, we want to regulate them out of existence, legislate them until they stop moving, and then subsidize them when they are broken. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

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