Tune in to "The Walt Blackman Show" for Part 2 of our series, "Understanding the Constitution." Become more informed and gain the confidence to discuss politics authoritatively, right here on the Walt Blackman Show.
Tune in to "The Walt Blackman Show" for Part 2 of our series, "Understanding the Constitution." Become more informed and gain the confidence to discuss politics authoritatively, right here on the Walt Blackman Show.
Strap in. You're listening to the Walt Blackman Show, the show that brings you hardcore conservative straight talk. Welcome to the no PC Zone. Hello everybody, it's Walt Blackman. I hope you're having a great wonderful day.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Walt Blackman Show. This is the show where you get all your political information Out front, with a no PC Zone show. Get ready and get set and we are ready to go on the Walt Blackman Show. Well, well, well, hello everybody, it's Walt Blackman, and welcome to the Walt Blackman Show. I hope you're having a great Labor Day weekend. I know that I am a little safety tips for you. Make sure you're not drinking a drive-in or drinking in Bolton. But if you want to drink in fish, that's insure barrage of it. But we're not going to be talking about that. We're going to be talking about the Constitution here on the Walt Blackman Show. Okay, everybody, last week we talked about the Constitution and in that segment we were talking about a author. His name is Shane Krause. He's going to be on the show one of these days, since we can get around his schedule. We are talking. We were talking about his thoughts and his interpretation of the Constitution. He also came to one of the LD meetings that I went to and he was talking about the Constitution, and this guy is truly a constitutional scholar. He is truly a person that understands the inter-working of the Constitution. He's a well-renowned scholar. He's an attorney, a constitutional scholar. He speaks all over the state and if you want to get him out to your LD to speak, I would highly suggest it, because this guy knows the Constitution and in his book your Country to Save, he outlines going detail, line by line, article by article, about what it means in the Constitution.
Speaker 2:In a long time we get a lot of people that, well, you're ever seeing some of those people that they will say I am a constitutionalist. And then they pull out this book of the Constitution, which they probably never even read, and they claim to be a constitutionalist. But all you're thinking is you are really gone for real. That's what you're thinking when they recite something that you know is not constitutional. The Constitution, in my opinion, is like the Bible. It is the Bible of our country. Now, I am not putting the Constitution over the Bible. I don't want people to think that I am. What I am saying is when I read the Bible, the first time I read the Bible, I had to continue to read it over and over and over again. I'm 58 years old, so I read the Bible a lot and I still don't have a complete comprehension of what God wanted to do Our purpose here, jesus Christ, our Savior. I did not have a full grasping of that and the only way that I was going to be able to close that gap was to continue to educate myself on scriptures.
Speaker 2:When we talk about the Constitution, just reading the preamble we, the people does not mean that you are a constitutionalist, does not mean that you understand the Constitution. I've read the Constitution over and over and over again and every time that I've read the Constitution I've learned something new. Now, a lot of times people will say according to the Constitution, they'll say, congress is violating the Constitution of the United States of America. Where are they violating that If they are doing that? So we can't just come out with these broad stroke statements about the Constitution if we don't know what's in the Constitution. We can't do that. Now.
Speaker 2:The framers of the Constitution separated the powers of government into three equal branches, and we understand that. We know that. We've learned that in Schoolhouse Rock and we know that there's the legislative powers, the powers that pass the laws, that's the Congress. We know that we have the executive power and that's the power to administer those laws that the Congress pass. And of course, that is the president, the president, and then, finally, we have the judicial powers, and that is the Supreme Court of the land. The deal is is that it's real simple to follow and understand. If something is not constitutional and this is how you do that If you see policy or read policy from your state level or to the federal level and it does not fit safely and securely into one of those three branches of government, then it is unconstitutional.
Speaker 2:For example, section 1, article 9. A lot of people do not know that in Section 1, article 9, it lays out that federal tax dollars will not be spent on special interest groups. However, the three letter words that we have a lot of these departments that fall under and I'm going to use the EPA as an example give your federal tax dollars to special interest groups the Green Party, so on and so forth, the Tree Huggers, so on and so forth and they do that through grants and contracts. So your federal tax dollars are paying for grants, they are paying for contracts, so on and so forth. However, it clearly states out in Article 1, section 9 of the Constitution. Guess what? You can't do that. So every time Congress passes the budget, or they do a continuation if you will, and the EPA is getting money based on that continuation because Congress holds the purse strings. They are violating the Constitution if they continue to fund the EPA. How do they fix that? Don't fund the EPA. Cut off their funding until they learn that they cannot use federal tax dollars to pay for special interest groups. Now, that is an example of the Constitution.
Speaker 2:Now, why did the Framers do this? Why did they write this document the way they wrote it? Now, this is an example. So, my friends, the Framers believed that the separation of powers would ensure that no one person or group of persons would be able to create, administer and enforce the laws in one branch or one entity, that each branch would be a check on the powers of the other two branches the executive or the judicial are so on and so forth. They understood that if they did not separate the three, that that was a road to tyranny.
Speaker 2:Now, for example, the courts, ladies and gentlemen, the courts, if you don't already know this, are charged with ensuring that the three branches of government do their jobs and that they understand the limits of their jobs. We also know let's talk about Congress. Let's talk about Congress. Now, under the scheme that I am talking about, congress cannot give its lawmaking powers to the executive branch or to the judicial branch. The courts are charged with ensuring that the three branches of government and I said this before act independently, that they are doing their jobs within their scope of responsibility and do not overreach on their delegated powers. But in some instances and we will see this, and we have seen this throughout history that two branches of governments are required to work together. You know what that's called? That's called working together. Why is it that we have in our Republican party don't work with anybody else but the Republicans Guess what? The Democrats have the executive and they have some of these department heads, these non-elected bureaucratic pencil pushers. They're trying to write some of these laws. But that's something else.
Speaker 2:Hey, everybody, we are going to continue talking about this, but before we do, I need to go and pay some bills. Well, it's time to pay the bills, everybody, and we do that by going to our sponsors, wb Consulting Services LLC. Wb Consulting is your trusted source of Arizona public policy related issues, offering expert analysts and advice for economic growth and business investment. Their experienced team of advocates for pro-business tax policy and tax-perform proposals will ensure the best possible outcome for your organization's success. So stay informed and make informed decisions with WB Consulting LLC, an objective approach to your public policy. And if you want to give them a call, all you need to do is call toll-free 1888 3415871 or call them directly 602960 7553. That's WB Consulting Services LLC. Well, we are back, everybody, and we are going to pick up from where we left off when we talked about the two branches of government sometimes that are required to work together.
Speaker 2:For example, the Senate has to and must approve the president's appointments to the Supreme Court and the president has the power to veto. Acts of the Congress are pardon convicted criminals, and we've heard that a lot in the news and I don't you know. We've heard that President Trump only wants to be president so he can pardon himself. That's a whole different topic, but that's what we're talking about now. Another important principle is contain an article one, section one, and that the federal government powers is limited to what it is written in the Constitution, and these are known as enumerated powers. Now, if the Constitution does not specifically give a power to the federal government, the power is left to the states.
Speaker 2:A lot of people used, or try to use, the 10th Amendment in this argument Article one to section one also requires that the Congress has the ability, ladies and gentlemen, to be bicarmeram, that is, it should be divided into two houses the House and the Senate, the House of Representatives as we commonly refer to as the Congress, but the Senate is part of that too. And at the time, ladies and gentlemen, when the Constitution was being adopted, there were several states and the Continental Congress had only one lawmaking body. If you didn't know that, that was a true statement, the Continental Congress only had one chamber and it was the Continental Congress. The creation of the two legislative bodies reflected on compromise, compromise between the power of the states and the power of the people. The number of seats in the House of Representatives, as you know and please forgive me, I don't want to insult your intelligence, but those numbers are based on population. The larger, the more urban states are. Or, correction, the larger the state is and the more people they have, will depend on the number of folks that are in Congress representing that particular state.
Speaker 2:Now, when we look at urban states, they have more representatives than rural. So, for example, here in Arizona, we have nine members of the US House of Representatives, nine members because of our population, and we have a lot of rural areas, so we are more likely to have a less populated state based on our demographics, based on the state, based on the sizes of rural areas. But in other states, like California, I think they got like 20 kb house representatives. I don't know how many. I think they. I don't know how many. I think they got 20 or something like that, I don't know. Now the Senate gives power to the states equally, with only two senators from each state and it's regardless. Regardless of the size of the state, the demographics senators come from all the states and only two are there.
Speaker 2:Now, to become law or any, any type of legislation did you see coming out of DC? As you know, it has to be passed by both the Senate in the house and approved, or at least not vetoed, by the president. That's how. We all know that. We all know what is the procedure. Now, in Article 1, section 2, the House of Representatives shall be composed of members of chosen every second year by the people of several states. We know that and electors in each state shall have the qualifications required for that position to represent the most numerous branch of the state legislative bodies. And we all know.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm not going to go into details about how old a person should be. You know what's really interesting and I should know the guy's name. I don't know the guy's name. He is running for president. And the last and I digress, please forgive me. He was in the middle of the stage. I think he was about like 34 and you need to be 35 to be president. This guy's going to turn 35. This guy's elected president. He is the youngest president, younger than JFK was, if elected. So that's just interesting to know. That's a historical sort of deal.
Speaker 2:Now, representatives in direct taxes should be appropriate and among the several states and we know it's, it's, it's, it's, you know it's, it's part of this, this document that we have but the states must be included within the union. Now, according to respective numbers. That's where we find the balance. And then, further in article one, section two, we understand that we were talking about enumerated powers, that the actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress. Now that's a different type of enumeration, other than separate, than what we hear typically hear about the 10th amendment. I've heard people, I've heard people actually refer to this part of the text and I quote the actual enumerated shall be made within three years after the first meeting of Congress of the United States and within every year subsequent terms of 10 years. I have actually heard people use that as the 10th amendment. I'm serious and every time that I hear that and.
Speaker 2:I know you are really gone for real, do? They have no clue what you're talking about, but they claim to be constitutional. So let me talk about the meaning of article one, section two. Now, article one, section two lays out that the House of Representatives is to be composed of members who are chosen every two years. And why did they do that? Why did the founders do that? Well, they believed that government that works the best is government that is closest to the people. Now, I'm not talking about government.
Speaker 2:Come in and take over what we are talking about here and what the founders envisioned about Congress, that they are there in their districts working the needs of the people, and if they don't do their jobs, guess what? In two years, the people can vote them out, get them out of there. And if we notice about the qualifications of a person who is going to run for the US House of Representatives, all they got to be is 25 years old. Now I'm a little bit sketchy on that thing right there, because I mean, I've got grown kids and I have six, two girls and four boys. And I will tell you, three of my four boys have already hit the age of 25 and have gone beyond and some of the stuff that I've seen 25 year olds do make me scratch my head, and sometimes you just got to look at them and then you're just like you are really gone for real. You're thinking like that. However, I digress, and that's a different. That's a different deal.
Speaker 2:Now we need to understand that efforts in Congress and the states need to add requirements for the office. They can do that, but they can't take away, such as duration of residency, rules, law heels. Those type of things have been rejected by the courts, believe it or not, because states have tried to use the 10th Amendment enumerated powers on how they select their representatives. So in 1966, the Supreme Court used the language chosen by the people of several states in Article one, section two, to recognize a federal right to vote in congressional elections, that right, along with the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which was later used by the Supreme Court to require that each congressional district contain roughly the same number of people, ensuring that one person's vote in a congressional election would be worth as much as another. If we look at this article that was written, as I said, article one, section two, that is a breakdown of that article and what they, the founders, want it to do, want it the people, the powers of the people. The powers of the people are in the states, not the other way around. A lot of times we have representatives that go up to DC and they forget that they were hired by the people who put them there. It's not the other way around. Everybody, it is the people that put them there.
Speaker 2:Hello, everybody, we all get busy and when we do, it's kind of hard for us to catch up on some of the old podcasts that we like to listen to. However, I've got a fix for that. If you want to listen to some of my older podcasts, all you need to do is jump over to Apple Podcasts, spotify, google Podcasts, podcasts Index, amazon and, my favorite, I Heart Radio. If you're at home, you want to listen to some of my older podcasts. All you need to do is go to wwwbuzzsproutcom, click on the Wall Blackman Show and go to episodes. That's wwwbuzzsproutcom, click on the Wall Blackman Show and all you need to do is click on your favorite podcast. Everybody thanks and I look forward to having the conversation with you. Now.
Speaker 2:To continue on Article 1, section 2 also creates a way that the congressional districts are formed. So if you have been sleeping under a rock, you should know that we just had our 10th year census. Every 10 years there is a census and that census collects all the data, that's within the state, within the counties, within the districts, of who's there, who's voting and potential population growth. Now they created this in which congressional districts are to be divided among the states. Now, again, if you already know this, please forgive me, I am not trying to insult your intelligence, but this is about research, this is about understanding, this is about doing your homework.
Speaker 2:Now, a difficult and critical sticking point to the Constitution or the Constitutional Convention was how to count the state's population. Particularly, the controversial or the conversation stemmed around was how to count the slaves. That was a controversial issue. Now, do you count slaves as part of the general population to figure out how many congressional members are able to go to Congress to represent your state? Now, if slaves were considered to be property, they would not be counted at all. And guess what? Everybody, slaves were considered property, and I hope that that doesn't hurt your feelings of some people. But slaves were considered property. Now, if they were considered people, they would be counted fully, just as women and children and other non-voters were counted. And if, again, if you were sleeping under a rock in the history class, you understand, or you should know, that women were not able to vote During the time the Constitution was written. It was basically wealthy landowners that owned slaves Now Southern slaves. Owners viewed slaves as property, as I said before, but they wanted them fully counted in order to increase their population, which would increase their political power in Congress. So they wanted the cake and they wanted to eat it too. That's what they wanted and that was wrong.
Speaker 2:Everybody, we will go to a break right now and listen, listen, listen. It's time to pay our bills and we do that by doing what we do. That wasn't supposed to be in there. I can't believe. I did that. Okay, where was that? Okay, now, they do that Now. They wanted, as I said, to have everybody. We are going to go on a break right now, but I want you to come back so we can finish this up while we are talking about the Constitution. God, dang it. Okay, let me try this again. Everybody, we are going to be right back. We got to go and pay the bills again. Everybody, we will be right back. We got to go pay the bills again. And after we are back from this message, well, it's time to pay the bills everybody, and we do that by going to our sponsors, wb Consulting Services LLC. Wb Consulting is your trusted source of Arizona public policy related issues, offering expert analysts and advice for economic growth and business investment. Their experienced team of advocates for pro business tax policy and tax reform proposals will ensure the best possible outcome for your organization's success. So stay informed and make informed decisions with WB Consulting LLC, an objective approach to your public policy. And if you want to give them a call, all you need to do is call toll free 1888-341-5871, or call them directly 6029607553. That's WB Consulting Services LLC.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, we all get busy and when we do, it's kind of hard for us to catch up on some of the old podcasts that we like to listen to. However, I've got a fix for that. If you want to listen to some of my older podcasts, all you need to do is jump over to Apple Podcasts, spotify, google Podcasts, podcasts Index, amazon and my favorite, iheartradio. Or if you're at home, you want to listen to some of my older podcasts, all you need to do is go to wwwbuzzsproutcom, click on the wall Blackman Show and go to episodes. That's wwwbuzzsproutcom. Click on the wall Blackman Show and all you need to do is click on your favorite podcast. Everybody thanks, and I look forward to having the conversation with you.
Speaker 2:Hey, everybody, that is going to conclude our show today. We will continue talking about the Constitution and we will pick up where we left off at and that is Article 1, section 2, explaining what it is and what is the proper way to interpret this thing that we call the Constitution. So, with that being said, everybody, please have a good and a rest of the day. Make sure that you're informed, make sure that you understand what you're talking about, especially when we're talking about the Constitution. We'll see you again next time on the Walt Blackman Show.