The United States government is based around our Constitution. One of the most important pieces to U.S. Constitution is what lies in Article. I. Section. 8. Here is a list of powers granted to congress through the Constitution, known as the Enumerated Powers or Granted Powers, stating what congress can enforce on the nation as a whole. Examples of these powers include, the ability to lay and collect taxes, to pay debts, provide common defense/ declare war, provide for the general welfare, and the power to regulate commerce. Valuable topics to understand when reviewing the Enumerated Powers that are granted to the United States Congress are how federalism and Federalists are tied into congress 's constitutional powers and the meaning and …show more content…
Each has its own independent authority and its own duties." Some of the most well-known of our founding fathers, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, were considered to be federalist during the Constitutional Convention where there was an urgent need to improve the United States’ government from the failing Articles of Confederation. In the point of view of the federalist, the Articles of Confederation did not provide enough power for the national government which caused problems of the government not being able to get things done efficiently. One example of the federal government receiving more power through congress is the Commerce Clause. The Commerce Clause is located in the United States Constitution as clause 3 in Article. I. Section. 8. This section in the constitution states that congress had the ability to "Regulate Commerce with foreign nations, and among the several …show more content…
The answer is substantially. The original founders of the United States federal government would not agree with the federal government having control over something that is intrastate. For example the sale of marijuana. A widely debated topic today that is debated by the modern U.S. government. Would the founders support the federal government or the state government regulating the sale of marijuana? The founders would not believe that the federal government should be in charge to monitor the intrastate sale of marijuana because they designed the Commerce Clause so congress would be in charge of interstate activities, not activities taking place within individual
Instead, the Constitution grants Congress the power to pass legislation regulating all commerce bar intrastate trade (U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3). Coupled with the subsequent clause enabling Congress to pass any legislation they deem necessary in order to carry out the laws passed by dint of the body’s Constitutionally-enumerated powers (U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 18), the enumerated power to regulate interstate and international commerce endows Congress with a significant capacity to control the nation’s
The thirteen states formed a Confederation referred to as the “league of friendship” in order to find a solution for common problems such as foreign affairs.The Articles of Confederation was the nation’s first Constitution. The articles created a loose Confederation of independent states that gave limited powers to the central government. Each state would have one vote in the house of Congress, no matter the size of the population. Members of the one-house Congress, such as Pennsylvania, agreed that the new government should be a unicameral legislature, without an executive branch or a separate judiciary. Under the articles, there wasn’t a strong independent executive. There wasn’t any judicial branch but Congress had the authority to arbitrate disputes between states. Congress was responsible for conducting foreign affairs, declaring war or peace, maintaining an army and navy and a variety of other lesser functions. But the articles denied Congress the power to collect taxes, regulate interstate commerce and enforce laws. Because of this, the central government had to request donations from the states to finance its operations and raise armed forces.
Philosophers that shaped and influenced the Federalist include Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu and John Locke. These philosophers believed in natural rights and built branches of government that would protect these natural rights. They believed that all men are instinctively selfish individuals and strive for self-preservation. From their viewpoint, balancing mans selfish desires and the desire to safeguard the community would be the ideal form of government for man. These philosophers built their ideas around the theory that too much liberty is bad for society. In order to avoid creating a strong central government comparable to Great B...
The U.S government works under princible called federalisim. Citizens regualte by two separate governments, federal and state. The federal government has limited power over all fifty states. State has power over their state, and no state can not make laws that conflict with federal laws. Federalisim is a system that allows two or more governments to share control over the same geographic region. The power is divided. The difference between federal and state governments power, the powers granted to the U.S. government are to collect taxes, pay debts, provide for the common defense and welfare of the U.S. The Federal Government can even boworrow money, regualte commerce within forgien nations and states. The power of the federal government
First, by studying the resources for this subject I found that federalism was a major guard against tyranny, which we will define as one person or group that gains too much power. In Document A, the quote by James Madison says “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments[state and federal]”, which describes how the idea of federalism in government will provide double security by having both state and federal government, control themselves as well as each other. The diagram on this page shows the division of power between governments and that state
Before the adoption of the United States Constitution, the U.S. was governed by the Articles of Confederation. These articles stated that almost every function of the government was chartered by the legislature known as Congress. There was no distinction between legislative or executive powers. This was a major shortcoming in how the United States was governed as many leaders became dissatisfied with how the government was structured by the Articles of Confederation. They felt that the government was too weak to effectively deal with the upcoming challenges. In 1787, an agreement was made by delegates at the Constitutional Convention that a national judiciary needed to be established. This agreement became known as The Constitution of the United States, which explicitly granted certain powers to each of the three branches of the federal government, while reserving other powers exclusively to the states or to the people as individuals. It is, in its own words, “the supreme Law of the Land” (Shmoop Editorial Team).
The familiar division of federal power among the President, the Congress and the Supreme Court was just the beginning. The Constitution also made it possible to impeach anybody who abused his power. In addition, the crucial 10th Amendment to the Constitution said that the federal government had the power to do only what it was specifically authorized to do, while the people or the states could do whatever they were not specifically forbidden to do.
Federalism in the United States has evolved quite a bit since it was first implemented in 1787. In that time, two major kinds of federalism have dominated political theory. The first, dual federalism, holds that the federal government and the state governments are co-equals, each sovereign. In this theory, parts of the Constitution are interpreted very narrowly, such as the 10th Amendment, the Supremacy Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause, and the Commerce Clause. In this narrow interpretation, the federal government has jurisdiction only if the Constitution clearly grants such. In this case, there is a very large group of powers belonging to the states, and the federal government is limited to only those powers explicitly listed in the Constitution.
One the most important expressed powers of Congress is the ability to tax. Money raised from taxes are crucial for health care expenses, social security, defense, etc. Although there are some limits placed on Congress, such as only taxing for public purposes rather than for private benefits. Congress can also tax imports, but they cannot place taxes on exports. They can't tax poll services or anything religious. These are a few of the limitations of the taxing power of congress.
The purpose of the constitutional powers of the national government is to keep checks and balances among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and also to divide power between the federal and state governments. Some key constitutional provisions that help us better understand the different constitutional powers of the national and state government first begins with Article One Section Eight of the Constitution. This passage is all about enumerated powers given to the national government which are also known as delegated powers. The Framers, who were the founders of the Constitution granted and denied powers to the national and state governments, in which included seventeen enumerated powers. Some of these enumerated powers for
Congressmen have a lot of powers that they can use that are called the granted powers. These powers came from Article 8 in the Constitution. Such examples are making established Postal Roads and Post Offices, to declaring war if needed to, and making rules concerning captures on land and water. They also can maintain a navy, and regulate land and the naval forces. They control a lot of military. To fund these things that money comes from our taxes because the government can send a federal income tax. They create the flow of money by passing laws on businesses and companies.
S. Constitution, the federal government was assigned to specific things and had limited powers over most of the government functions. In actuality, most of power was left to the states to determine. In order to ensure that individuals understood the limit of federal power, the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment was added: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. In essence, the Tenth Amendment personified federalism.
Federalism refers to the system of government in which power is split between a national government and a state government as is defined by a constitution. The overarching purpose of such a government is to grant each level their own equal sovereign and independent powers in an overall effort to eliminate too large of a control by one level. One of the major requirements of this style of government is that each level has the independent authority to pass laws - this gives states the ability to maintain a sense of identification and independence from the federal government and allows laws to differ across state borders. The United States upholds a, generally, successful form of federalism seeing as it has two major branches of government with their own purposes as well as a constitution that is followed as well as possible. Arguably, the most important thing that the branches of American government can do is to follow the constitution, as the nation would not properly function without it. Overall, the constitution most speaks to the national government in terms of what they are allotted to do. While the constitution creates a sort of framework for the national government, the Tenth Amendment (as was ratified in 1791) grants any power that is not directly granted in writing to the federal government in the constitution, to the states. The concept of federalism can aid in eradicating disputes over some ethical issues by granting power to a specific level without any problems. However the constitution, being vaguely worded, can leave much to be interpreted and therefore there can be misunderstandings and controversy over whether the federal or state government has the jurisdiction over certain events. Be that as it may, according to t...
Inherent powers of Congress include: protecting the border; acquiring and annexing new territory; and, obviously, creating laws. Expressed powers include: power to call forth and national guard, and raise and support armies; power to make and borrow money for any purpose; power to impeach and approve the new nomination if the seat of the Vice President is vacant; power to make laws regarding bankruptcy and manage federal areas; and power to set up both post offices and postal routes. Meanwhile, some of the implied powers of Congress include, but are definitely not limited to: power to set up a draft; punish tax evaders and regulate certain commodities (like alcohol, cigarettes, etc.); power to regulate immigration; power to establish a minimum wage, ban discrimination in both the workplace and public facilities; bar the shipment of certain materials through mail (exotic food/seeds, drugs, tobacco, etc.), as well as the obstruction of mail; and power to regulate
Federalism in America has changed over the years. The United States has a federal for of government where the power of government is shared among the state and national governments. How the power is distributed between the state and national governments is found in the Constitution under the Tenth Amendment. The Tenth Amendment reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, of to the people.” According to this amendment, anything not explicitly stated within the Constitution is left up to the states to decide.