The Southern tradition has many answers to modern problems. The challenge is that few look there. They get close but stop short. On a recent episode of the All-In Podcast, David Friedberg made some salient points about the Constitution and federal spending. They were discussing the fact that federal spending is roughly 23% of GDP. He then went into some history.

“Just to give you some context, in 1860, nearly 100 years after the founding of the United States government, federal spending to GDP was less than 1%. And it took off during the Civil War for a couple of years.”

Friedberg then talked about “the national highway effort” which he says coincided with the growth of government spending in the middle of the last century. He said that this was part of the “original intention of the Republic. It wasn’t to have the federal government come in and employ people, provide insurance to people, provide energy markets to people, own football stadiums, et cetera…”

He is half right to this point. There were many at the founding and up until the Civil War who believed that most internal improvements were not in the purview of the general government. The reason is simple. Too much opportunity for corruption. How internal improvements were handled was one of the many complaints of some of the States that seceded in 1860/61.

Friedburg continues:

“Now, the biggest mistake I think the founding fathers made was that they didn’t create constitutional limits on spending and enrichment. And this was because they had these deeply held philosophical beliefs that relied on the House of Representatives to provide a check by the people.”

He then describes how he did some research with ChatGPT and got summary information that referenced the Federalist Papers.

“James Madison emphasized that the structure of government was meant to ensure that both state and federal governments would limit each other’s excesses, including their financial ones. And then in the Federalist Paper number 58, he said, the House of Representatives has control over the ‘power’ of the purse, which gives the people’s representatives authority over taxation and spending. But they also warned along with Alexander Hamilton of the dangers of unchecked government power through burdensome taxation and excess spending, which would ultimately erode individual freedoms.”

David Friedberg is part of a popular technology and business podcast. He is a successful entrepreneur and is currently the CEO of a technology company. He was born in South Africa and completed his education at UC Berkley where he received a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics in 2001. The size of government and the federal deficit is Friedberg’s number one political concern.

The reason this is important is that the Southern tradition is the only tradition left that represents the founding intent of what were then known as Anti-Federalists or the original Republicans. This founding tradition was present in the Confederacy. The Confederate States Constitution is proof as it contained many changes meant to reign in the central power over spending.

The Confederate Constitution explicitly prohibited Congress from appropriating money for any internal improvements intended to facilitate commerce, except for those related to waterway navigation (like lights, beacons, and buoys).

The Confederate President was granted a line-item veto, allowing him to approve or disapprove individual appropriations within a bill.

Legislation was required to relate to one subject only, which must be expressed in the bill’s title. This rule aimed to prevent the bundling of different spending proposals into one bill, a practice that could obscure the true cost and purpose of legislation.

All appropriation bills had to specify the exact dollar amount for each expenditure.

The Confederate Constitution also forbade the imposition of tariffs for the purpose of promoting or fostering any branch of industry, ensuring that duties and excises were strictly for revenue. This was a response to criticisms of the U.S. Constitution where tariffs were sometimes used to protect or promote certain industries.

Unlike the U.S. Constitution, the Confederate version did not include a general welfare clause, which in the U.S. context had been interpreted to allow for broader spending powers.

The Confederate Constitution stipulated that no money could be drawn from the treasury except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses, unless the appropriation was asked for and estimated by one of the heads of the executive departments and submitted to Congress by the President.

It is positive that a modern podcast is looking to history to explain where we are today. If the Southern tradition was not so successfully and unfairly maligned, we would find some solutions to our modern problems. This is another good reason to defend Southern heritage. We need to make it so that David Friedberg would think nothing of asking ChatGPT what the Confederate Constitution contained to curtail central government spending.


Garrick Sapp

Garrick Sapp is an independent writer in Mississippi.

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