Letters to the Editor

David Laidler, Professor Emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, Canada

On February 1, among other trade actions, President Trump imposed heavy tariffs on US imports from Canada, citing a national emergency created by illegal immigrants and fentanyl entering the US from this country. In doing so, he unilaterally repudiated the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, a treaty that he himself signed during his last term of office. Furthermore, his descriptions of illegal immigration and drug smuggling patterns along the US-Canada border were not so much exaggerations as bare-faced lies, presumably intended to justify his bypassing Congress while making this dramatic change in US trade policy. 

This policy action and the trade war that it is provoking will inflict immense damage on my country (Canada), my province (Ontario), my city (London), and indeed on some members of my own family. Since my immigration to Canada in 1975, I have been a supporter, always in private, but sometimes in public as well, of close Canada-US relations, as exemplified for example by my longtime association with the Cato Institute. Over the years I have seen my adopted country stand by the US during the Iran Crisis, support thousands of US citizens on 9/11 by granting landing rights to aircraft shut out of US airspace, and send young men and women to serve and die in Afghanistan alongside Americans. And the recent wildfires in California are only the latest among many natural disasters in which Canadian volunteers have routinely helped Americans in a time of need. 

I am bewildered and deeply hurt by the treatment that President Trump is meting out to my country. His suggestion that Canada become a 51st state is profoundly unfunny, and I can assure you that these sentiments are shared by an overwhelming majority of Canadians.

As I write, the friendship between our countries that has lasted for well over a century is being put at grave risk by measures introduced unilaterally by the president of the United States, without congressional approval. These disgraceful actions are almost certainly in violation of your Constitution and are even more surely inflicting severe damage on America’s international reputation for decency. I hope that the Cato Institute will strenuously oppose them with all the means at its disposal.

Karen Krieger, Raleigh, NC 

The majority of our citizens want the government to provide everything, but no one wants to pay for this largess. Unless and until there is a forced correlation between government spending and cost/​taxation, we don’t have a prayer of reducing our horrendous deficit and debt.

The Trump proposals of no taxes on overtime, tips, car loan interest, and social security are the Republican version of the student debt forgiveness pandering by the Democrats and will only make the tax code more onerous than it already is. These are just gimmicks and should be avoided by sober-minded representatives; but since most of them are only interested in getting reelected, the handouts continue.

This country does not have a revenue problem but rather a spending problem that a reduction of the tax rates alone will not solve. A complete overhaul of the tax laws is in order, and perhaps a change from income to consumption taxation would be a good thing, but ONLY if the Sixteenth Amendment is repealed. Otherwise, I am certain that we will end up having to pay both to satisfy the beast that is our federal government.

Our deficit and debt problems are so huge that, in my opinion, revenue-neutral tax changes are nowhere near enough to make a difference. We need both a drastic cut in spending, and taxation that makes our country realize that there really is no free lunch. Cutting taxes to stimulate growth is fine, and useful, but it will never be enough to solve this gargantuan problem. And for the record, I despise paying taxes, especially with all the waste and abuse of our tax dollars. 

Peter Spung, Convention of States NC District Captain and State Content Writer, Raleigh, NC

The roots of liberty at Cato resonate strongly in Free Society, and your message of “individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace” resounds throughout.

As a patriot and fellow journeyer in the liberty movement, may I suggest that you consider posing this question of the authors and articles: “Is it necessary, yet insufficient?” Cato and Free Society’s policy prescriptions are often necessary and accurate but insufficient alone to address DC’s bureaucracy and spending. Additional structural limits are needed for sufficiency and sustainability. Please allow me to illustrate with two articles from the Winter 2024 edition.

“A Road Map for Reform: 10 Policy Priorities for the New Congress” is a guide for sound governance. Many thanks to the authors! Slashing taxes, limiting debt, reducing federal costs, lowering health care prices, reforming Social Security, restoring sound monetary policy, reforming legal immigration, auditing government-induced guilty pleas, applying low intervention to AI, and preventing a central bank digital currency are excellent policy ideas. These necessary changes must be led by Congress but are insufficient alone. After future elections or changes in administrations, policy gains will be lost or overturned unless they are made permanent through structural changes via constitutional amendments.

The Article V Convention of States movement shows that the Framers of our Constitution were structuralists aware of human nature’s timeless attraction to power. They created structures in checks and balances to diffuse and restrain this power. Supporting liberty, individual rights, and free enterprise requires structural limits on the federal government. Constitutional amendments provide these limits, as seen in many positive historical examples—see “The Lamp of Experience: Constitutional Amendments Work” or this short video summary.

Despite super-majority polling support for decades among We the People, Congress has not and presumably will never limit its power through term limits or budget controls. In practice, Congress continually exhibits deceitful governance by passing numerous self-restricting laws, such as the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, the Budget Control Act of 2011, and the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, only to exceed and violate them. The Kabuki theater and faux drama of debt limit brinksmanship and government shutdown threats add insult to injury. Since Congress fails to govern responsibly, We the People, through the states, must amend the Constitution with structural limits on the federal government as per Article V. This will make the policy priorities in “Road Map for Reform” sufficient and sustainable.

“Reining in the Imperial Presidency: A Plan for Repealing Harmful Executive Orders” highlights the need for structural limits to prevent the president from bypassing Congress via executive orders (EOs). Cato’s EO handbook identifies and revokes EOs that undermine individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. However, EOs by one president are often overturned by the next, leaving We the People with little voice. Structural amendments could limit presidential influence by requiring Congress to review and approve EOs with impacts over $100 million. These laws (in another form, EOs are mainly enforceable regulations) requiring spending and appropriations are Congress’s responsibility, not the president’s.

Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. Cato has recommended, and Congress has enacted, necessary policies and plans repeatedly, with insufficient results—“Necessary, Yet Insufficient.” The federal debt and unfunded liabilities grow, DC bureaucracy constantly expands, and We the People’s liberties diminish through regulation and overreach. Besides Cato’s necessary proposals, please make them sufficient: Advocate for calling an Article V Convention of States to propose permanent structural limits in the Constitution via amendments. This will create a path to responsible and sane federal governance. We the People, and the growing millions in the Convention of States grassroots movement, will be forever grateful to you.