Nationalize the Economy? Not.

World War I is the gift that keeps on giving. Or is it World War II? Or perhaps the Cold War?

Several “lawmakers” have urged President Biden to invoke “Cold War powers” to nationalize the economy and stop soaring energy prices.

I’ve read the Constitution hundreds of times, and I have yet to find the “Cold War powers” clause in the document.

Of course, these “powers” aren’t really from the Cold War. Woodrow Wilson started that engine during World War I by asking Congress to give him the power to do things like nationalize the railway industry.

Congress found it, just as Hamilton found the power to incorporate a bank in 1791.

John C. Calhoun thought anything was constitutional as long as Congress said it was. He didn’t agree with this position, but if it had the power to create an oppressive protective tariff, it had the power to do anything it wanted.

In other words, he knew the Constitution was nothing more than a scrap of paper without any power unless “lawmakers” adhered to the document.

Nancy Pelosi’s incredulous response several years ago when asked if Obamacare was constitutional is what Calhoun predicted in 1837.

Of course Obamacare is constitutional. Congress said it was.

Kind of like “Cold War powers.” We’ve been living in a wartime economy since 1933. No one notices because we’ve become so accustomed to the nonsense.

Or maybe Americans just really like big government. It seems so when “your guy” is in power.

Joe Biden is a symptom of the disease, not the disease itself. The faster Americans wake up to this reality, the faster we can get on to “thinking locally and acting locally.”

This doesn’t mean the “lawmakers” in Washington won’t affect your wallet or our lives. They will, but local action can blunt the blade of centralization.

And the dirty little secret is that States have tremendous powers at their disposal.

I discuss this latest attempt to “nationalize” the economy on episode 598 of The Brion McClanahan Show.