The health care debacle of the last year should prove that. If the President had stepped out in front and presented his ideas in a drafted format, the disparity from the House and Senate bills would not exist, and the majority of hoopla that the Republicans made complete chaos out of would not have existed. I do not believe the Executive Branch, in drafting a bill, is overstepping. I do believe that an Executive Branch that moves forward on policies because they believe standing law doesn’t apply because of a particular ‘parting hairs’ interpretation suggests it is very much so overstepping.

As far as you GOP outcomes, the most likely is a temporary resurgence of the Conservatives due to popular backlash from 8 years of bad policy will continue, but this progressive movement within the party is not likely to go away until the GOP finds a new, truly conservative leader is found to rally around, i.e. a new Reagan. I don’t think a split is as likely as you think, there may still be a lot of uproar, but while they can point at Bush and Cheney, none of them will really be held accountable beyond the thrashing the GOP has already received.

I don’t think we disagree as much as you think we do. I never said that the necessary and proper clause shouldn’t be there, only that congress has been very poor stewards of the power granted by that clause. I fully agree that at times it is “necessary and proper” for Congress to step in.

And yes I understand that any citizen can draft a bill and send it to their Senator or Congressman for consideration. My point is that in this case, our current administration is overstepping their bounds and becoming too invovled in the party politics surrounding this bill.

And for the record, there are very few people in the House or Senate that I would consider to be part of my party. Its unfortunate, but I think we are seeing the beginning of a large schism in the party which will result in one of two things:

1) A complete overhaul in which the Progressive, overspending “Republicans” go quietly into retirement and allow the Constitutionally Conservative faction to take over, or

2) A complete split with us true conservatives leaving for another as yet to be determined party.

I sincerely hope option 1 occurs.

1. The Necessary and Proper clause is the single area the Congress uses to over-reach the most, it is not the only area though. It is often used to justify passing laws that infringe on States rights, to which all other powers not clearly defined in the Constitution have been left. The flip side of this is that this same clause has been used to force States to change bad laws and grant powers to the Federal Government to be responsive to the needs and will of the people. I know you argue against this, but a government that cannot respond or provide as the people demand is not a government that will be allowed to stand long. That IS what the Founding Father’s wanted, that is the beauty of the Constitution. It was designed to be flexible and responsive, it was designed to be altered when necessary, as we have done 26 times, and given certain vagueness to be allowed to change law based upon unforeseen need. The Necessary and Proper clause has been used as often to do good, provide needed services or correct oversights not previously established in the Constitution. The result of which are institutions such as the CDC, FEMA, and other agencies that fall outside of the limits of the Constitution. To suggest that this clause has been abused is possibly an understatement, but to rule out all of the things done using this clause as abuse is just plain wrong and dishonest.

2. As far as Legislative Powers are concerned, they are still intact, even after the damage done by the last administration. Anyone can draft a bill Rich, you can, the President can, anyone. They can only be presented to the Congress to vote by a member. In no way does a bill drafted by Joe Plumber or the President infringe upon those powers. And no bill ever written has bypassed this step, I am sure that if you do the research you will find a written form of the bill you are complaining about, as well as any other bill ever passed into law, and you will see who it has been presented by, and it will be either a sitting Senator, or a sitting Representative (you should be able to find any single piece of legislation here http://thomas.loc.gov/). Nothing in the above phrases includes anything about who may draft a bill. And again, that is how the Founding Father’s intended it to work, they wanted any citizen to be able to work to change the laws, but the wanted the only body that could create law to be that single branch, and that is still how it is done some 220+ years after it was drafted by citizens. As far as expanding Federal powers, until you convince the Republicans not to overstep, it is unfair to expect any of the others to reign themselves in. Change the system from within your party, then we will talk. Now it is up to the Congress to actually Legislate, if we want them to return to dominance, as 808MAN suggests, they need to get up and step up to the table and find the “sweet-spot” that Governor Schwarzenegger talked about earlier today, instead of sitting back and sniping at each other.

To go one step further, the majority of bills passed into law come from some other group or agency, many are directly provided by lobbying groups. They of course are altered with amendments and riders through the process once they get in the politicians hands, but the original draft is rarely done by a member of Congress.