Essay: The U.S. Constitution

The government body of the United States is constantly changing. From the moment that our country was born until this date, there have been many eras and concepts that have transpired over the years. The United States’ federal and state governments have gone through periods of transition that started from 1781 to the present day in which their relationships have continuously been changing. All of these transitions have determined the relationship that is present between the two major parties, the state governments, and the federal government of the United States.
In order to understand the different eras of U.S. governmental history, one must first understand the history of the relationships and interactions that have been between the federal and state governments. The constitution of the U.S. establishes a direct link between state governments and Congress. The constitution gives our congress specific powers like declaring war and creating armies. The U.S. Constitution also prevents states from performing acts that would undermine the federal government. Some of those acts include making treaties, coining money, and causing or declaring war. The federal government and the state governments of the United States all interact with one another.
Republicans have a tendency to prefer a limitation on the power of the federal government. However, democrats would like to have a large, active, and powerful federal government to rule over them. These different point of views that are present among the two major parties of the United States drive the two parties’ dissimilar approaches to complex policy problems. According to the constitution of the United States, the role of the federal government should be strictly limited in order to have a better policy. The federal government is responsible for a very few jobs that are relatively important and should be done very well.
One might be concerned about a few occupations that the federal government is responsible to perform. The most important duty of the federal government is to provide for the common defense. This means that if there is a threat by a foreign power, the federal government is responsible to protect the fifty states and to resolve that threat immediately. The founders had recognized that the national security was not a responsibility to be provided by the fifty states. In addition, the federal government has been given other responsibilities enumerated in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. The federal government is responsible to pay the debts, regulate commerce between states and other nations, coin money, and etc. These were and are powers that made more sense to assign to a federal government than to be independently performed by every state.
Perhaps the most important feature of the federal government’s responsibilities is that it’s short and it was intended to be short. James Madison in Federalist 45 explained the concept of federalism; “The powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” This vertical sharing of powers between the federal government and the fifty states is a vital part of the political system of the United States. However, this relationship has been ignored and disregarded for many years. The federal government of the United States has managed to expand its role. This has often happened through clever use of the interstate commerce clause, the appropriations power and the taxing power, and the willingness of states to trade their sovereignty for the federal budget.
I’m certain the drafters of the Constitution would be frightened of the expanded power of the federal government. The federal government has been involved in areas they never envisioned, including education, health care, workplace safety and housing. Nonetheless, the federal government has not been able to perform an excellent job in those areas that were mentioned. In fact, the federal government often makes situations worse and at greater expense to the taxpayers and citizens of the United States. I believe that much of Americans’ frustration with President Obama was that he seemed unwilling to engage in the federal government’s most important role which was the national security. He instead pursued goals that were not remotely the federal government’s task, like Obamacare. The historic downsizing of our military under President Obama’s leadership has coincided with unprecedented incursions into areas of our society best left to local governance or to the private sector. It’s a dangerous upending of the system of federalism our founders intended for keeping policy making, wherever possible, closest to the people.
We need to seek a solution in order to resolve this division that has occurred between our Republican and Democratic parties, our states, and the federal government of the United States. We should stop viewing the federal government, with its extensive resources and authority, as the fastest and simplest solution to complex problems. This tendency to depend on the federal government is usually well-intentioned but always a common mistake to be made. The Nobel-prize winning economist Friedrich Hayek said, “We shall never prevent the abuse of power if we are not prepared to limit power in a way which occasionally may prevent its use for desirable purposes.”
When we’re discussing matters that lie outside those few areas that constitutionally belong to the federal government, we shall leave it to the states. It might take longer, yet the results will be more viable, longer enduring, and more moderate. In conclusion, according to the constitution, the proper role of the U.S. federal government is to pay the debts, regulate commerce between states and other nations, coin money, and etc. These were and are powers that made more sense to assign to a federal government than to be performed by every single state.