Father of Constitution Anticipated Questions From People Like the Managing Editor of TIME Magazine

Father of Constitution Anticipated Questions From People Like the Managing Editor of TIME Magazine

July 6th, 2011 · No Comments

By Foster Friess, Guest Blogger

In the July 4 cover story of Time Magazine, managing editor Richard Stengel declares that the “Constitution was born in a crisis.”The Framers could not possibly have envisioned modern life, he says, so their restrictions on the federal government are irrelevant. And then he makes the bold statement that we have no idea what James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, would say about our current constitutional questions.

“Well, since James Madison did not know what health insurance was and doctors back then still used leeches, it’s difficult to know what he would say,” Stengel writes. Now, for starters, if the Framers wanted health care in the Constitution, would they not then have included a clause about leeches?

Fortunately, we do not have to speculate. Madison did a lot of writing in his day, and he actually anticipated a lot of Stengel’s questions. Here are some more of Stengel’s comments, followed by Madison’s actual words:

Read more at Bob McCarty Writes.

Just for the record, I have written similar accounts of Madison standing up for the Constitution in instances that are parallel to today's world as Obama wants to give shelter and aid to illegal aliens. Madison once again dealt with that situation too.

In 1794, six years after the ratification of the US Constitution, our Congress already began stretching the limits of their power. Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees who fled from rebellion in San Domingo to Baltimore and Philadelphia. James Madison stood up and addressed the Congress. His words powerful--full of Constitutional wisdom, mainly that it's not the job of the federal government to provide welfare or charity.

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

Obviously Time Magazine is out of touch and probably doesn't want to take the time to research and defend that old document known as the Constitution.