Martin Hoke: “when our forefathers met in Philadelphia in 1787, their goal was to write a Constitution based on limited government…”

“when our forefathers met in Philadelphia in 1787, their goal was to write a Constitution based on limited government that provided for the current and future needs of our country. But beginning with several Supreme Court decisions in the 1920's and going right up through the present, that concept has been turned on its head. As a result, we have seen the Federal Government grow to almost a quarter of our gross national product. This is far beyond what the founders could ever have imagined. Fueling this unconstitutional expansion of the size and power of the Federal Government has been deficit spending, which unfairly asks future generations to pay for the Government spending binges of today. But on January 25, we are going to have a historic opportunity to reestablish constitutional limits on the power of the Federal Government when we vote on the balanced budget amendment. As Thomas Jefferson clearly sought in 1798, ``If there is one omission I fear in the document called the Constitution, it is that we did not restrict the power of Government to borrow money.'' Let us correct that next week.”