Gus Celebrates Constitution Day
WASHINGTON, DC (September 16, 2010) – Friday marks the 223rd anniversary of one of our nation's most important founding documents, one that too many people in Washington have forgotten about lately.
Tomorrow, we will commemorate the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. On September 17, 1787, the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia adopted the document, which was ratified by conventions in each state and has been amended 27 times. The first 10 amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.
The federal government has evolved during these past two centuries, and has exceeded the powers spelled out in the Constitution. Instead, we have seen the sovereignty of the states shrinking while power within the three branches of government has been expanding.
There was much debate during the drafting of the constitution concerning the division of powers between states and the new national government, which is why our founders drafted the 10th Amendment to the Constitution: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Let's use Constitution Day to remember the limited role the federal government should be playing in our lives.