The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #8: How much government power is too much?

Governments have to have SOME power, but not too MUCH power. A government with too little power cannot govern at all and so we don’t get the benefits a government is supposed to provide. A government with too much power can become tyrannical and infringe on the freedom of the people beyond what is proper and necessary to protect citizens and maintain an orderly society.

One of the endless struggles in the modern history of representative governments is to find the right balance between too little power and too much, between a government that is helpless and a government that is dangerous.

One of the attendees at the US Constitutional Convention in 1787 said the delegates gave the president strong powers, and sometimes not-well-defined powers, because they trusted George Washington, and they knew he was likely going to be the first president of the new country.

In a similar way, I think Americans should look around now, at the current crop of political leaders, and realize that it would be better for us to REDUCE presidential powers.

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It is hard for me to understand why, but there was actually just a bill in the House to INCREASE the president’s power!

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HR 9495 would allow a president to take away a non-profit organization’s tax-exempt status if that organization “supports” terrorism. The problem with the bill is that it doesn’t require the government to tell an affected organization why the decision is being made or what the evidence is that supports the decision.

How could an organization defend itself against an accusation without knowing exactly what the accusation is?

Today this bill was blocked in the House. 204 Republicans voted for this bill and 1 voted against. 52 Democrats voted for this bill and 144 voted against.

Notice that 256 people voted for this bill and only 145 voted against, so, why was it blocked? Due to the rules of the House this particular bill needed a 2/3 vote of 270 to pass and it did not reach 270…. But it came close!

More than 130 tax-exempt organizations, including the ACLU opposed this bill and I think they were right. We shouldn’t want the government to be able to penalize people, or groups of people, or organizations, based on shady and secret accusations and without due process of law.

Sadly, a majority of House members DO want the government to have this power, so I’m afraid we might see some form of this bill revived.

One of the things that should make us suspicious of this bill is that it would give the government power to penalize organizations that are "supporting terrorism," but we should wonder: if the government believes a group is supporting terrorism, why aren’t they bringing criminal charges against it? It almost looks like the government wants power to harass organizations even if they don’t have evidence the organizations committed any crimes at all….

That kind of power would certainly make a great tool for a tyrant.

I believe we are in a time when presidential powers should be reduced and, yes, I did write about this years ago, when a Democrat was moving into the White House.

I am certainly happy this effort to increase presidential power has failed, at least for now. If we want to defend liberty, we should not give the government MORE powers, especially not UNECCESSARY powers, and most especially not SECRET unnecessary powers.

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