Article I, Section 8, Clause 17
Some people believe that Congress can do whatever they want.
People will argue that Congress has implied powers because of the general welfare clause, the commerce clause, or the necessary and proper clause, or that the government can do whatever the Supreme Court says is legal.
In the area of Washington, DC, that is actually true. Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 gives Congress the power,
“To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings.”
Fearing that politicians would interpret the Constitution to give the Federal Congress unlimited power over the USA like they have over Washington DC, the Constitution was amended in 1791 to include the Bill of Rights, notably the 9th and 10th Amendments.
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” -9th Amendment
“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.” -10th Amendment
If someone wants the government to take care of them from cradle to grave, then they should move to Washington, DC, where Congress actually has that power, or to a State where such powers are granted in their Constitution.
“It has long however been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from it’s expression, (altho’ I do not chuse to put it into a newspaper, nor, like a Priam in armour, offer myself it’s champion) that the germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little to-day & a little tomorrow, and advancing it’s noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the states, & the government of all be consolidated into one. to this I am opposed; because whenever all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.”
-Thomas Jefferson writing to C Hammond, August 18, 1821[1]
[1]https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-2260
