The current economic crisis on Wall Street has lead members of both the House of Representatives and United States Senate to conclave in order to provide a means of bailing out the U.S. Financial Market. Urged on by our President, George W. Bush, the Senate and House have worked diligently for a matter of days to help resolve the current economic woes. Yet many members of both houses are reluctant today to voice support for the bail out plan reached on Sunday evening. While the proposal for a bail out plan is rarely opposed by members of Congress, they have rejected the hasty decision to pass such a bill without giving it time. One of the benefits of our Federal Government is that it is divided into three branches, with the legislative divided into two houses.
The original plan for the legislative houses was to have on directly elected by the people of the various states and the other to be appointed by the legislatures of the various states. Under our current system, amended by the 17thAmendment, we have both houses elected by the people of the various states. One might ask, is this not a good thing? Does this not make us more democratic? Surely we must see that this was not the aim of the Framers of the Constitution. They did not desire a quickly responsive national, federal, government. Rather, the Framers intended to create a government that was slow to act so as to remove the passions which have been the downfall of the greatest of democracies. The Framers erected a system which would place passion against reason in the form of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The House, the only directly elected branch of government according to the original Constitution, was meant to be the avenue for which the people could appeal. Stability was sacrificed in order to give the people representation in the Federal government. Meanwhile, the Senate was devisedin order to bring stability and rational thought to the national Legislature. Their hope was that the House would pass a bill and that the Senate would be able to determine with more reason if a law was necessary and proper. In Federalist 62 Publius says, “The propriety of these distinctions is explained by the nature of the senatorial trust; which requiring greater extent of information and stability of character, requires at the same time that the senator should have reached a period of life most likely to supply these advantages…” The Senate, unlike the House, was looked upon to act as the older tutor for the young, often naive, pupil.
By acting hastily to pass a bill which many in both houses are finding hard to support, the national legislature is doing what the Founders hoped they were protecting against. By having Senators appointed by the States, rather than elected by the People, the Framers established the natural competition which occurs between the interests of the People and their Government. Finally, not only does this bill create a $700 Billion bail out, it also extends their power. Section 104 of the current bill before Congress creates a Financial Stability Oversight Board, which is created for oversight of the proposed bill. This is just one new agency that the proposed bill intends to create and allows the United States government more control over the economy than was ever intended. Our economy, while stumbling, is not in recession nor is it about to fail. Our national legislature should take the time to review this bill in a way which will make sense to protect the contracts of the people of the United States. We do not need to act in a manner which could potentially destroy the liberty of companies and the people to freely contract. If we let the market work itself out, then we will find that government intervention is not necessary.
