Statement: Flores’ Vote on HR 152 – Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief

The Bryan/College Station Tea Party applauds our Congressman, Rep. Bill Flores, for his NO vote on the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Bill.

On Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 the Congress of the United States voted whether Congress should give taxpayer money to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy – HR 152.

Some might portray this to be a very unfeeling vote, but it’s not. There is simply has no constitutional authority to do so. The Constitution leaves such appropriations and spending up to the States, or to the conscience of the people, to disperse their own money for that purpose as they see fit.

We reference this speech made from the Floor of the House of Representatives by Rep. David (Davy) Crockett:

Mr. Speaker–I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money.

Read more: http://www.fee.org/library/detail/not-your-to-give-2#ixzz2IFkm2xhQ

Crockett knew The Constitution and relied on others knowing it too.

The republican understanding of representative government demands adherence to the limits placed upon that body by The Constitution. Therefore, the expectations of Mr. Flores’ constituents is that he spend their money  in accordance with the authority WE gave him in the Constitution. Without constitutional permission, all other reasons not to vote for the bill—such as the cynical spending added to an emotionally charged bill that dared anyone to contradict—would be seen as secondary.

Rep. Crockett’s reliance upon his fellow Representatives’ knowledge of The Constitution dismissed the need to argue the point as unconstitutional. That our current post-fact culture is ignorant of The Constitution and the limits through certain enumerated powers it places upon the created government in no ways nullifies The Constitution.

The Bryan/College Station Tea Party regards our Constitution as the STANDARD to which all government actions must be measured. To that end The Constitution is the shield that protects our life, our liberty, and our pursuit of happiness…i.e. our property—the real intent of the founders!