The Exercise of National Power

The defects of the Articles of Confederation convinced the Framers of the Constitution that the United States needed a substantially stronger national government. Under the Articles, the national government could not regulate domestic commerce or levy taxes. In the absence of a national commerce power, states taxed goods that were in transit for sale in other states and devised regulations to protect local producers from out-of-state competition, thereby impeding the flow of commerce and producing a stagnant national economy. The national government, meanwhile, was forced to rely on state contributions for its revenues. Because the states were notoriously unresponsive to requests for funds, forceful national action was impossible. Restricted only to textually enumerated powers, the national government lacked the flexibility necessary for effective responses to changing situations. To correct these problems, the Framers augmented the powers of the national government. Article I, Section 8, of the new Constitution gives Congress the power “to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes,” the power to tax and to spend “to provide for the common Defense and the general Welfare of the United States,” and to exercise all powers necessary and proper for carrying out its enumerated powers.