The Progress Report October 24, 2010
More than seventy years ago, the Supreme Court abandoned a brief,
disastrous experiment with "tentherism," a constitutional theory that
early twentieth century justices wielded to protect monopolies, strip
workers of their right to organize and knock down child labor laws.
This discredited constitutional theory is back -- with a vengeance --
endangering Medicare, Social Security, the minimum wage and even the
national highway system and America's membership in the United
Nations.
For the first time in three generations, the right isfielding a slate of
candidates convinced that any attempt to betterthe lives of ordinary
Americans violates the Constitution -- while anumber of sitting lawmakers
such as Reps. John Shadegg (R-AZ) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL) are
already actively pushing tentherism from within the Congress.
Make no mistake, this agenda threatens allAmericans, from the
youngest schoolchild to the most venerable retirees.
Tentherism's core tenet is that the 10th
Amendment must be read too narrowly to permit much of the progress of the
last century. Thus, for example, because the Constitution doesn't
actually use the word "education" -- it instead gives Congress broad
authority to spend money to advance the "common defense" and "general
welfare" -- Senate candidates like Ken Buck (R-CO) and Sharron Angle
(R-NV) claim that the federal Department of Education is
unconstitutional.
That means no federal student loan assistance or Pell Grants for middle
class students struggling to pay for college, and no education funds providing
opportunities to students desperately trying to break into the middle class.
That's hardly the worst news tenthers have in store for young Americans.
Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller wants to declare child labor
laws unconstitutional -- returning America to the day when ten-year-olds
labored in coal mines.
Tenther candidates have even worse plans for working
age Americans. Miller and West Virginia GOP Senate candidate John
Raese both claim that the federal minimum wage is unconstitutional --
a position the Supreme Court unanimously rejected in 1941.
If you're a person of color or a woman or a person of faith than you are also out
of luck, because Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Pau lagrees with
Justice Clarence Thomas that the ban on employment and pay
discrimination is unconstitutional (don't try to get a meal on your
lunch break either, because both men feel the same way about the ban
on whites-only lunch counters).
Significantly, the constitutional doctrine which supports the minimum wage is the
same one which supports child labor laws and bans on discrimination, so when a
candidate comes out in opposition to any one of these laws, it is
likely that they oppose all of them.
To top this all off, Alaska's Miller even claims that unemployment benefits violate the
Constitution, so Americans who are unable to find work in the new tenther regime
will simply be cast out into the cold.
Social Security may be the most successful program in American history. Without it,
nearly half of all seniors would live below the poverty line. Yet, because words like
"retirement" don't specifically appear in the Constitution, tenthers think that Social Security
is forbidden.
Indeed, Social Security has not just been labeled unconstitutional by specific GOP candidates,
the Republican Party's "Pledge To America" embraces a tenther understanding of the Constitution which endangers both Social Security
and Medicare.
Tenthers respond to claims that they would abolish
America's entire safety net for seniors by pointing out that state
governments could still create their own retirement programs, but such
a state takeover of retirement programs is economically impossible
unless America forbids its citizens from retiring in a different state
than the one that they paid taxes in while working.
Some tenther candidates have also suggested that Social Security can survive so
long as it is privatized, but privatization wouldimpose significant
new risks on seniors, create new administrative costs, force benefit
reductions and cost more money than the present system.
In other words, the right has a simple plan for American families: making sure
that everyone at the dinner table is completely on their own.
Ian Millhiser is a Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress.
Essentially the Tea Party and like extremists wants to return the US to the status quo before the Great Depression. This was the era of child labor, penniless seniors, corporate towns and and "have not" and a "have more" society. During World War 2 the US was untouched by the violence that shook Europe. The fascists and corporatists is the US were left unscathed by the war.
In Euope, fascism was overwhelmingly defeated and a new fairer society developed. Europeans now have a better healthcare and education system than the the US and the European GDP exceeds that of the US. Europeans are taller and live longer than Americans. "Old Europe" is a misnomer. Europe was reborn out of the ashes World War 2.
It is really "Old America" and the Tea Party is trying to push its early 19th and 20th Century values on us. There is nothing modern about Tentherism.
In addition, we fought a civil War 50 year ago that resolved who was in charge of this country. The federal government prevailed.
source: http://www.alternet.org/module/feed/mobile/?storyID=148593&type=s
See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/25/lastminute-halloween-cost_n_751607.html
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu
Netcraft rank: 8362 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
disastrous experiment with "tentherism," a constitutional theory that
early twentieth century justices wielded to protect monopolies, strip
workers of their right to organize and knock down child labor laws.
This discredited constitutional theory is back -- with a vengeance --
endangering Medicare, Social Security, the minimum wage and even the
national highway system and America's membership in the United
Nations.
For the first time in three generations, the right isfielding a slate of
candidates convinced that any attempt to betterthe lives of ordinary
Americans violates the Constitution -- while anumber of sitting lawmakers
such as Reps. John Shadegg (R-AZ) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL) are
already actively pushing tentherism from within the Congress.
Make no mistake, this agenda threatens allAmericans, from the
youngest schoolchild to the most venerable retirees.
Tentherism's core tenet is that the 10th
Amendment must be read too narrowly to permit much of the progress of the
last century. Thus, for example, because the Constitution doesn't
actually use the word "education" -- it instead gives Congress broad
authority to spend money to advance the "common defense" and "general
welfare" -- Senate candidates like Ken Buck (R-CO) and Sharron Angle
(R-NV) claim that the federal Department of Education is
unconstitutional.
That means no federal student loan assistance or Pell Grants for middle
class students struggling to pay for college, and no education funds providing
opportunities to students desperately trying to break into the middle class.
That's hardly the worst news tenthers have in store for young Americans.
Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller wants to declare child labor
laws unconstitutional -- returning America to the day when ten-year-olds
labored in coal mines.
Tenther candidates have even worse plans for working
age Americans. Miller and West Virginia GOP Senate candidate John
Raese both claim that the federal minimum wage is unconstitutional --
a position the Supreme Court unanimously rejected in 1941.
If you're a person of color or a woman or a person of faith than you are also out
of luck, because Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Pau lagrees with
Justice Clarence Thomas that the ban on employment and pay
discrimination is unconstitutional (don't try to get a meal on your
lunch break either, because both men feel the same way about the ban
on whites-only lunch counters).
Significantly, the constitutional doctrine which supports the minimum wage is the
same one which supports child labor laws and bans on discrimination, so when a
candidate comes out in opposition to any one of these laws, it is
likely that they oppose all of them.
To top this all off, Alaska's Miller even claims that unemployment benefits violate the
Constitution, so Americans who are unable to find work in the new tenther regime
will simply be cast out into the cold.
Social Security may be the most successful program in American history. Without it,
nearly half of all seniors would live below the poverty line. Yet, because words like
"retirement" don't specifically appear in the Constitution, tenthers think that Social Security
is forbidden.
Indeed, Social Security has not just been labeled unconstitutional by specific GOP candidates,
the Republican Party's "Pledge To America" embraces a tenther understanding of the Constitution which endangers both Social Security
and Medicare.
Tenthers respond to claims that they would abolish
America's entire safety net for seniors by pointing out that state
governments could still create their own retirement programs, but such
a state takeover of retirement programs is economically impossible
unless America forbids its citizens from retiring in a different state
than the one that they paid taxes in while working.
Some tenther candidates have also suggested that Social Security can survive so
long as it is privatized, but privatization wouldimpose significant
new risks on seniors, create new administrative costs, force benefit
reductions and cost more money than the present system.
In other words, the right has a simple plan for American families: making sure
that everyone at the dinner table is completely on their own.
Ian Millhiser is a Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress.
Essentially the Tea Party and like extremists wants to return the US to the status quo before the Great Depression. This was the era of child labor, penniless seniors, corporate towns and and "have not" and a "have more" society. During World War 2 the US was untouched by the violence that shook Europe. The fascists and corporatists is the US were left unscathed by the war.
In Euope, fascism was overwhelmingly defeated and a new fairer society developed. Europeans now have a better healthcare and education system than the the US and the European GDP exceeds that of the US. Europeans are taller and live longer than Americans. "Old Europe" is a misnomer. Europe was reborn out of the ashes World War 2.
It is really "Old America" and the Tea Party is trying to push its early 19th and 20th Century values on us. There is nothing modern about Tentherism.
In addition, we fought a civil War 50 year ago that resolved who was in charge of this country. The federal government prevailed.
source: http://www.alternet.org/module/feed/mobile/?storyID=148593&type=s
See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/25/lastminute-halloween-cost_n_751607.html
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu
Netcraft rank: 8362 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
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