About the Speech

There is no constitutional authority for at least two-thirds of what Congress appropriates money for and does. Congress has escaped its constitutional straitjacket envisioned by the Framers. As a result, we are increasingly seeing our liberties vanish. Thomas Jefferson predicted that when he said, "The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield."

For the last half-century, Americans from all walks of life have demonstrated a deep and abiding contempt for private property rights and economic freedom and other human rights. In the name of false ideals such as equality of income, sex and race balance, affordable housing and medical care, orderly markets, and consumer protection and energy conservation just to name a few, we have lost many personal liberties.

Our government is becoming increasingly destructive of the ends it was created to serve. John Stuart Mill, in discussing the limits of government power in his treatise On Liberty said, "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized society, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant." That moral vision, along with the constitutional restrictions on Congress that support it, finds wholesale rejection by today's Americans.