Torturing the Constitution
One of the most consistently abused portions of the U.S. Constitution is what has come to be known as the necessary and proper clause. Members of Congress regularly cite it for authorization to enact legislation that is totally unconstitutional.

The clause appears in item 18 of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. After a comprehensive listing of powers granted to Congress in the previous 17 clauses of this Article and Section, the final enacting clause reads: "[Congress shall have power] To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."

Lawmakers regularly ignore the weight of the word "foregoing" when citing this passage. But this important word clearly indicates that Congress has power only regarding what is mentioned in the preceding 17 clauses of Article I, Section 8, or in specific passages granting power in other portions of the Constitution. Omitting this word from considerations about legislation opens the door to virtually anything.

If Congress has power to enact any law deemed necessary and proper, it would have been foolish for the Constitution's authors to have listed powers granted in the previous 17 clauses. Why enumerate some powers if power to do anything is granted? The men who wrote the Constitution, and the state legislators who ratified it, were not foolish. The addition of the wording about "foregoing powers" was clearly an assertion, similar to the soon-to-be-added Tenth Amendment, that government power is strictly limited, not unlimited. Congress cannot legitimately enact laws and create programs that its members deem "necessary and proper" to satisfy their whims and the whims of their constituents.

There is no power granted to Congress in Article I, Section 8, or in any other portion of the Constitution, for the federal government to dole out foreign aid to governments all over the world, to send U.S. military into war without a formal declaration by Congress, or to have any presence whatsoever in the fields of education, housing, medicine, energy, transportation, and more. Laws authorizing such actions are clearly not "necessary and proper" and any member of Congress - or anyone holding such a tortured view of the Constitution - should be challenged. Words have meaning, and all of the words appearing in the Constitution were written with care and must be deemed important.