We, the people, are the government of the United States.
Yes, that's the way it is **supposed** to be. But it isn't, really. The
federal government does all sorts of extra-constitutional things, and gets away
with it. Who is doing anything about it?
Fred,
The US Constitution gives a lot of leeway for interpretation, starting
with the preamble:
"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the
common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America."
Promoting the general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty
covers much of our investment in science, R&D, social programs,
elaborated in Article I, Section 8, beginning with:
"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts
and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and
general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and
excises shall be uniform throughout the United States..."
The extra-Constitutional things that have led to the huge debt and
deficits are off-budget wars, secret funds for secret programs, not the
tiny fraction of our budget that goes to infrastructure like broadband
and cellular communications.
The government investment in infrastructure is an important part of
promoting the general welfare--for both people and businesses. Crumbling
infrastructure and citizens with poor health and limited means of
communication leads to loss of liberty--the antithesis of promoting the
general welfare.
The "common defense" depends intrinsically on the health of the people
and the infrastructure.
Betty
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