Dinner with the President. by Joel

Dinner with the President. by Joel - October 2017 Scholarship Essay

The President that I would choose to have at my dinner would be Thomas Jefferson, because he would be able to give me insight on what the original intent of the Constitution was. In this day and age, there are many cases in the Supreme Court where they make rulings that give Congress too much power. They use the Constitution to decide if these laws should be upheld, but many of these laws encroach upon our personal rights, or the rights of the states. In the Constitution, it specifically states that if Congress is not directly given a power, then it lies within the people or the states. Inversely, if Congress has a power, the people and states do not have that power. For example, in 2010, Barack Obama signed Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, into law. This law provided health care for people who couldn’t afford it, by increasing the Medicaid eligibility by 33%. However, states are also able to provide health insurance. This is one issue I would like to ask Jefferson about, as he was one of the people who helped write the Constitution.
Another major issue today is Congress controlling our schools through federal mandates. They essentially tell the states that they will give them money, but only if they meet certain standards. This is a way for Congress to indirectly control what schools teach, especially since most schools would be willing to take any free money they could get. It would be like me telling someone I would give them $1,000 if they would sit up straight. It sounds a lot like bribery if you ask me, and bribery is a crime. I’m certain that Jefferson would have wonderful things to say about whether or not he thought this was right according to our Constitution.
Third on my list would be international treaties. Today, treaties are used in a way that makes other countries control how the U.S. runs its government. The Founders provided for treaties in the Constitution, but they had a different meaning. The way they understood treaties was that they would tell the United States how to treat foreign nations. For example, if they made an agreement with England saying they would let them stay in a hotel for half the cost, then it would be a real treaty. I would personally like to ask Jefferson what treaties mean, and whether or not any of our treaties are constitutional.
Finally, I would like to ask him if he thought concurrent jurisdiction is constitutional. Concurrent jurisdiction is when two or more levels of government (e.g. states and congress) have power over a certain area. In Maryland, there is a road by a park, and both the state police and the national park police are able to respond to accidents in this area. However, the state police must defer to the national park police. It seems like a waste of national resources that could be better used elsewhere. What if someone gets in a car wreck, the national park police respond, but then someone poaches a protected animal just afterwards? The national police are now too busy helping the person in the car to stop the criminal. While I agree the police should help people in accidents, they should leave that to the local police, and instead focus on crimes against national parks. Jefferson would provide understanding on this concept.