The Health Care Reform Act is completely unconstitutional. The authority to be involved in health care is nowhere to be found in the enumerated powers of Article 1:8 of the Constitution. The framers would have considered this a local issue and ridiculous to be handled on a national level. Thomas Paine describes this philosophy quite well in Common Sense.

Paine logically discusses the absurdity of monarchial or centrally controlled types of governments:

"There is something exceeding ridiculous in he composition of a monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him out from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by naturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless."

The Health Care Reform Act is a form of centralized or monarchial power, and just like it is impossible for a king to be omniscient, it is absurd  to expect some national bureaucracy to make decisions about the individual health of the citizens. Actually, it is more than absurd, it is extremely wasteful and a violation of inalienable rights. Instead of money going directly from patient to doctor, it will trickle from the taxpayers pocket though a maze of bureaucracies before reaching the doctor. It is also a violation of the basic inalienable right of property as money is forcibly taken (taxation) from one individual and given to another. It also violates the inalienable right of liberty by forcing citizens to by health insurance. Furthermore, this legislation will harm the whole medical industry by creating a government monopoly driving out competition and driving up costs by inflating the market. This will gradually force all citizens to become dependent on a socialistic system that will eventually degenerate into scarcity and rationing.

The solution to the health care problem is simple: freedom. Allow people complete freedom to sell, buy, succeed or fail without any government regulation or interference. The free market would automatically give us the lowest cost, best quality system just as it has done with every other commodity that has been allowed to be produced under the natural forces of the market system. Health care would become like cell phones or fast food; prices would plummet and everyone could enjoy the best quality. This process would require the government to do less; not more. First, abolish the AMA (American Medical Association) monopoly so that anyone could become a doctor. Second, abolish the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) monopoly so that anyone could sell their medicine. Third, abolish the Medicaid subsidy to stop the flow of money being dumped into the health care market sector inflating the costs. Fourthly, discourage  the health insurance industry. It is simply a big racket of lawyers and providers squeezing money out of the insurance companies driving up costs.

Some may say this is radical and it would result in quack doctors and bad medicine. The opposite is true: cost would plummet and the quality would improve. The quality would be controlled by natural market forces; the demand for quality would provide all kinds of opportunities for entrepreneurs to start quality assurance companies and organizations like the Better Business Bureau. The Internet would be filled with a plethora of services to seek reliable information on doctors and medicines. The genius of the people and the natural forces of unabated freedom would result in incredible advances in medicine. A good example of this is the airline industry. As it was being deregulated under President Reagan's administration back in the 1980's, people were worried that planes would fall out of the skies if the federal government didn't regulate it. The opposite happened; prices plummeted and quality improved! Safe, reliable air travel became affordable for most people. Thus, the solution to the health care crisis is to simply go back to the wisdom built into the Constitution; the federal government has no authority whatsoever to be involved in health care.

The United States has strayed far from the original war powers doctrine contained within the Constitution. This is a very dangerous trend and is of the utmost concern during this Congressional campaign. The framers of the Constitution were very familiar with the dangers of one man deciding war: Europe had been a bloodbath of continuous wars for centuries due to unbridled war powers in the hands of a few men. So the framers wisely designed a simple process to ensure that war would be used to provide for the common defense (not offense).

The war making process is spelled out in Art I:8 and Art II:2 of the Constitution and can be described as a two-step procedure of first deliberation and secondly, dispatch.

The deliberation process takes place in Congress where war is carefully and exhaustively debated, researched and discussed by a group of civilians largely unconnected from the military establishment and directly accountable to the parents of the sons and daughters who would fight the war. After much careful deliberation, if war is decided, then Congress passes a formal declaration of war.

Once Congress declares war, then the president is called into service as the Commander-and-Chief to conduct the war. After Congress initiates the war, next one man is in charge of executing the war so that it can be fought with dispatch. In other words, the Constitution stipulates entering war carefully through the deliberation of many and ending war quickly through the leadership of one. George Washington and the early presidents set the precedent: they did not call Congress; Congress called them. Indeed Washington did not even commence the first battle of the Revolutionary War within our very own borders until he was chosen to do so by Congress under the Articles of Confederation and President James Madison awaited a declaration of war from Congress before commencing the War of 1812.

Today the Constitution has been ignored to the point that the process is completely reversed and the original safeguards have been undermined. Nowadays, the President decides war and Congress automatically goes along with it. Technically they do not have to go along with it, but once the troops are committed, they have no practical choice. Additionally, the President places higher importance on the opinion of the United Nations than on Congress! Not only has the process been reversed, but also Congress has been virtually replaced by the United Nations. Essentially, one person is deciding war based on the whims of a disinterested and unaccountable committee of foreigners!

Congress has abdicated their Constitutional responsibility and the President has usurped authority. Unless this dangerous trend is stopped, we will continue to witness a series of unjust wars that our sons and daughters are forced to fight.

There are two main components to any economy: trade and money. Trade is the contractual exchange of goods or services between two parties. Trade can be accomplished either directly by barter or indirectly through money. Barter is when goods or services are traded directly between two parties. Money is used as a convenience to trade; it merely represents the value of the goods or services being traded. A sound, free economy is comprised of both free trade and an honest money system.

The Constitution originally set up both free trade and a sound money system. The power to regulate commerce with the foreign nations and among the states was given to Congress (Article I:8:3). This power was given to the most numerous branch because it was meant to be used sparingly; the founders understood that the wealth of nations comes from freedom, not through government regulation. This was the great discovery of Adam Smith in his book, Wealth of Nations published in 1776. Free trade has four dimensions: the freedom to buy, the freedom to sell, the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail. It is inseparably connected to the divine right of pursuit of happiness enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. In modern times we have strayed far from our free trade roots with regulations, licensing, price controls, rent controls, minimum wage laws, tariffs, embargoes and government acquisitions.

The Constitution also originally set-up a sound money system based on gold and silver (Article I:10:1).  The gold and silver standard is the only system compatible to a free economy.  Any other monetary system is susceptable to corruption and doomed to ultimate failure. The framers knew this from first-hand experience; during the revolution, paper emissions (paper money) had caused rampant inflation and nearly destroyed the economy. The beauty of the gold and silver system is that:

• It is very difficult to counterfeit or manipulate
• It has universal intrinsic value
• It is easy to coin
• It is scarce

These attributes make gold and silver almost ideal for money as a market-driven commodity. It does not need to be centrally controlled; it is simply based on supply and demand like every other commodity. As the need arises for more money in the system, the price increases and triggers the demand automatically. It is part of the "invisible hand" described by Adam Smith.

This system we have inherited today was created under the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 and is called Monetarism. It is a completely extra-constitutional system which sets up a central bank independent of Congress and based on fiat money completely in violation of Article 1:10:1 and Article I:8:5. It is a deeply flawed debt-based system that operates by creating a delicate balance between inflation and recession. It is merely a form of legalized counterfeiting using paper or computer-generated fiat money. Because it operates on debt, it fosters a debt mentality which permeates the country. It is difficult to encourage, teach or practice frugality and thrift in a debt-based society.

This system has been cloaked in complication for decades. Nobody seems to understand it including presidents and members of Congress. Here is a basic explanation of how the system works: Suppose someone counterfeited an $100 bill and purchased some merchandise at a department store, both parties would receive immediate benefit. The losers would be everybody else because the money supply would be diluted as the $100 bill propagated. When more money is dumped into the system it devaluates or debases the currency. It is a subtle form of theft or hidden taxation. In simple terms, when the government spends more money, it prints more money. There is an initial benefit between the government and the contractor but it debases everybody else's money! It is like a hidden tax propagating among all the consumers. The only reason this system has been tolerated is because the effects, both positive and negative, have been distributed both publically and privately. In other words, both the pain and gain have been shared by many. The public sector benefits through government contracts and the private sector profits through the fractional reserve system. The fractional reserve system allows banks to loan out several times more money than they have in reserve; thus amplifying the fiat money supply.

Governments favor central banking systems based on fiat money. It provides them unlimited money to spend as they please while gradually debasing the currency. This system has fueled numerous wars and countless social programs for the past 90 years in the United States. Many of these wars and all of the social programs have also been unconstitutional. The main reason why it hasn't failed so far is because foreign markets have been absorbing at lot of the money and are propping the system up with gigantic loans.

It is an ideal monetary system for a tyrannical form of government. It is an inherently unstable system creating cyclic inflation and recession. Indeed the greatest depressions in U.S. history have happened with the Federal Reserve system. When these crises occur, government officials typically will blame the private sector and justify nationalizing businesses. Such has been the case recently, after the failure of Bear Stearns,  AIG and Myrill Lynch, the typical rhetoric is to blame CEOs, lenders or stock brokers and justify further government intervention. It is the perfect set-up for the creation of facism or socialism. The Federal Reserve system is at the root of our march towards militarism and socialism.

It is crucial that we return to a sound money system. After over 90 years of monetarism, our economy is on its knees and the dollar is doomed to fail. Perhaps a period of austerity will arouse Americans to return to their constitutional roots.