Current Events vs. Founding Documents

President Blames Speculators

Posted by Mark Musselman on April 24, 2012

Constitution, Legislative branch, regulate business

Entry 138

Current Event

According to CNN.com; April 17, 2012

Obama proposal would rein in oil speculation

Prices posted at a gas station in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 16, 2012. Under pressure to bring down the high price of gas, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder will outline a proposal Tuesday to increase federal supervision of the oil markets in an effort to clip the wings of speculators who are profiting off the volatility of the oil market.

The president's $52 million plan would let regulators force energy traders to put more of their own money into trades and boost the penalties on manipulators who are found to be speculating unlawfully, according to a senior administration source who would not comment on the record in advance of the president's remarks.

VS

President vs. The Constitution

Founding Document

US Constitution; Article I Section 8 - Powers of Congress

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

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.

We the People:

Perhaps Mr. Obama believes that the ethics of the speculators has deteriorated since he was in office; and that is why gasoline prices have exploded.   Or maybe he thinks that those involved with exceptionally low natural gas prices are less ruthless than oil speculators.  Or our struggling president just might need another diversion.

Under the natural law of a free economy, the price of any commodity is directly related to the supply and demand for it.  Oil prices remain high because the Obama administration has limited the supply by halting the Keystone pipeline, stifling off-shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the West Coast, and limiting access to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and on federally-owned land near the Rocky Mountains. What article of the Constitution gives him the right?

Additionally, from what Constitutional authority does Mr. Obama believe Congress is allowed to expand Eric Holder’s police state power to regulate the energy traders’ own money?  It is certainly not from the enumerated powers in Article I Section 8.