More Republican constitutional bupkis

The US constitution seems very clear that taxes should be used to benefit the United States: pay the debts; provide for the common defence and the general welfare. But it’s never that clear: whose debts? which defence? what welfare?

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
— Article I (Section 8), US Constitution, 1787

Almost as soon as the constitution was confirmed there were arguments about debts from the war years, and what debts should be honoured. Taxes were used to pay for an invasion of Canada in the War of 1812, a war that was opposed by states near the Canada border who did not see it as part of any common defence. There was comparatively little discussion of the general welfare.

Perhaps there was little discussion because in 1787 most people identified welfare with a meaning closer to Samuel Johnson’s (1755) definition as “Happiness, success, prosperity” – along the lines of “the pursuit of happiness”. Nowadays, the most common interpretation of welfare is the governmental provision of economic assistance to persons in need, but economic assistance is not what voters on the constitution probably thought by welfare, if they thought about it at all.

Taxes, by their very nature, reduce a citizen’s freedom. Their proper role in a free society should be to fund services that are essential and authorized by the Constitution, such as national security, and the care of those who cannot care for themselves. We reject the use of taxation to redistribute income, fund unnecessary or ineffective programs, or foster the crony capitalism that corrupts both politicians and corporations.
— “We Believe in America”, Republican Platform 2012 [My emphasis]

Paying taxes might mean less income, but not less freedom, unless you have a very diminished notion of what is the nature of “freedom”. Freedom comes from not being stopped by the community from exercising inherent rights such as “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” or being subjugated by others. You might be happier with more income, but you are still able to pursue happiness because a lower income does not in itself deprive you of life or liberty.
What does reduce a citizen’s freedom is not taxes, but impositions such as the Republican platform’s contra-constitutional liberty-removing desire to affirm

the right of States and the federal government not to recognize same-sex relationships licensed in other jurisdictions.
— “We Believe in America”, Republican Platform 2012

Disregarding the constitution and disregarding what is just, can be dangerous. In the years before the US civil war, states in the North and the South did not want to recognize  laws concerning slavery in other states with which they disagreed. The US constitution said that:

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State.
— Article IV (Section 1), US Constitution, 1787

Reasons given by states in the South for secession were that some of their laws were not recognized in the North, and they did not recognize some laws of the North. The reasons revolved around reduced freedoms for some people living in the USA. For example, South Carolina’s reasons for leaving the Union:

[Our laws are not recognized there because] In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia
…
[Their laws are not recognized here because] the submersion of the Constitution, has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship, persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its beliefs and safety … the non-slave-holding States generally have wholly refused to deliver up to us persons charged with crimes affecting slave property
— “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union”, 24 December 1860

In a federal republic, if the constituent parts of the federation do not respect each other then the confederation is at risk.

Technorati Tags: republic,republican party,taxes,freedom,civil war,federal republic,constitution,welfare,general welfare,happiness,slavery,marriage equality,same-sex marriage