1Center or American Progress | What i the Tea Party Wins?
What if the Tea Party Wins?
They Have a Plan for the Constitution, and it Isn’t Pretty
Ian MillhiserSeptember 2011
Introduction
In he ea Pary’s America, amilies mus morgage heir home o pay or heir moher’send-o-lie care. Higher educaion is a luxury reserved almos exclusively o he very rich. Roten mea ships o supermarkes naionwide wihou a naional agency oinspec i. Fahers compee wih heir adolescen children or sub-minimum wage jobs. And our naional leaders are uterly powerless o do a hing. A leas, ha’s wha would happen i he ea Pary succeeds in is eor o rei-magine he Consiuion as an anigovernmen manieso. While he House o Represenaives pushes Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan o phase ou Medicare, numer-ous members o Congress, a leas one Supreme Cour jusice, and he governor o America’s second-larges sae now proudly declare ha mos o he progress o helas cenury violaes he Consiuion.I is dicul o coun how many essenial laws would simply cease o exis i he eaPary won is batle o reshape our ounding documen, bu a shor lis includes:
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Social Securiy and Medicare
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Medicaid, SCHIP, and oher healh care programs
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All ederal educaion programs
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All ederal anipovery programs
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Federal disaser relie
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Federal ood saey inspecions and oher ood saey programs
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Child labor laws, he minimum wage, overime, and oher labor proecions
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Federal civil righs lawsIndeed, as his paper explains, many sae lawmakers even embrace a discredied consi-uional docrine ha hreaens he union isel.
2Center or American Progress | What i the Tea Party Wins?
What’s at stake
Te ea Pary imagines a consiuion ocused enirely upon he enh Amendmen, which provides ha “Te powers no delegaed o he Unied Saes by he Consiuion,nor prohibied by i o he Saes, are reserved o he Saes respecively, or o hepeople”—which is why heir narrow vision o he naion’s power is oen reerred o as“enherism.”
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In layman’s erms, he enh Amendmen is simply a reminder ha heConsiuion conains an iemized lis o ederal powers—such as he power o regulaeinersae commerce or esablish pos oces or make war on oreign naions—and any-hing no conained in ha lis is beyond Congress’s auhoriy.Te ea Pary, however, believes hese powers mus be read oo narrowly o permimuch o he progress o he las cenury. Tis issue brie examines jus some o heessenial programs ha leading ea Pariers would declare unconsiuional.
Social Security and Medicare
Te Consiuion gives Congress he power “o lay and collec axes, duies, imposs andexcises, o pay he debs and provide or he common deense and general welare o heUnied Saes,” hus empowering he ederal governmen o levy axes and leverage heserevenues or programs such as Social Securiy and Medicare. A disurbingly large numbero eleced ocials, however, insis ha hese words don’ acually mean wha hey say.In a speech o he conservaive American Legislaive Exchange Council, exas Gov.Rick Perry lised a broad swah o programs ha “conradic he principles o limied,consiuional governmen ha our ounders esablished o proec us.”
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Gov. Perry’s lisincludes Medicare and “a bankrup social securiy sysem, ha Americans undersandis essenially a Ponzi scheme on a scale ha makes Bernie Mado look like an amaeur.” And Perry is hardly he only high-ranking eleced ocial o share his view.Sen. Mike Lee (R-U) mocked Presiden Franklin Delano Roosevel or callingupon he ederal governmen o provide “a decen reiremen plan” and “healh care” because “he Consiuion doesn’ give Congress any o hose powers.”
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Rep. BobGoodlate (R-VA), who engineered he House o Represenaives’s dramaic read-ing o he Consiuion earlier his year, claimed ha Medicare and Social Securiy are “no in he Consiuion” and are only allowed o exis because “he cours havesreched he Consiuion o say i’s in he general welare clause.”
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Sen. om Coburn(R-OK) said we should eliminae Medicare because “ha’s a amily responsibiliy, noa governmen responsibiliy.”
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Because his erroneous view o our ounding documen is rooed in an exaggeraed view o he enh Amendmen’s saes righs’ provision, many so-called enhers claim ha
3Center or American Progress | What i the Tea Party Wins?
eliminaing Social Securiy and Medicare wouldn’ necessarily mean kicking millions o seniors ou ino he cold because sae governmens could enac heir own reiremenprograms o pick up he slack. Tis proposal, however, ignores basic economics.Under our curren sysem, someone who begins heir career in Ohio, moves o Virginia oaccep a beter job oer, and hen reires in Florida pays he same ederal axes regardlesso heir residence. Tese axes hen und programs such as Medicare and Social Securiy. I each sae were responsible or seting up is own reiremen sysem, however, he persondescribed above would pay Ohio axes while hey worked in Ohio, Virginia axes whilehey lived in Virginia, and would draw benes rom he sae o Florida during heir reire-men. Te sae which beneed rom heir axes would no be he same sae ha wasrequired o und heir reiremen, and he resul would be an economic deah spiral orsaes such as Florida ha atrac an unusually large number o reirees.For his reason, enher proposals o simply le he saes ake over Social Securiy and Medicare are nohing more han a backdoor way o eliminae hese programsalogeher. I he ea Pary ges is way, and our naion’s social saey ne or seniorsis declared unconsiuional, millions o seniors will lose heir only income and heironly means o pay or healh care.
Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program,and other health care programs
Te ea Pary’s consiuion has pleny o bad news or Americans below he reiremenage as well. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), or example, recenly claimed ha any ederalinvolvemen in healh care whasoever is unconsiuional because “he words ‘healhcare’ are nowhere in he Consiuion.”
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Sen. Coburn lumped Medicaid in wih Medicare when he claimed ha providing or herailes Americans is a “amily responsibiliy,”
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and Gov. Perry includes Medicaid on hislis o programs ha “conradic[] he principles o limied, consiuional governmen.”
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Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-U) claim ha “he Consiuion doesn’ give Congress” any auhor-iy over healh care is a blanke saemen encompassing all ederal healh programs.
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I his vision were o be implemened, all ederal healh care programs would simply cease o exis and millions o Americans would lose heir only access o healh insurance.
Education
Educaion is also on he ea Pary’s chopping block. Rep. Scot Garret (R-NJ)rouinely grills educaion secrearies a congressional hearings, insising ha he
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What If the Tea Party Wins?
Ian Millhiser examines some of the
essential programs that leading Tea Partiers would declare unconstitutional.
essential programs that leading Tea Partiers would declare unconstitutional.
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