Did you know the federal government shouldn't
even be funding infrastructure?
It might sound shocking, but it's true.
In fact, James Madison actually vetoed a "public
works" bill funding infrastructure in 1817
calling it unconstitutional.
The bill was "for constructing roads and canals,
and improving the navigation of water courses, in
order to facilitate, promote, and give security to
internal commerce
among the several States."
Virtually every American today would say that this is
exactly what the feds should be doing.
But the "Father of the Constitution" disagreed.
Madison said:
"The legislative powers vested in Congress are
specified and enumerated...
and it does not appear that the power proposed to
be exercised by the bill
is among the enumerated powers,
or that it falls by any just interpretation
with the power to make laws necessary and proper
for carrying into
executions those or other powers vested by the
Constitution
in the Government of the United States."
The amazing thing is that Madison actually
favored the bill personally,
but he vetoed it anyway, because he put the Constitution
above his personal policy preferences.
That's the kind of integrity you should never
count on
from Washington D.C. today.
