Thursday, April 3, 2014

Environmental Toxins Linked to Rise in Autism

Six well-known major white matter tracts recon...
Six well-known major white matter tracts reconstructed in three randomly selected subjects. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Dr. Mercola
Three decades ago, when I was still in medical school, autism affected one in 10,000 children.1, 2 What changed between then and now to cause one in 50 children3 to become autistic?
Mounting research—not to mention plain logic—indicates that brain disorders are the result of excessive exposure to toxins from multiple sources—including the mother, while in utero. One 2005 study4 by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that blood samples from newborns contained an average of 287 toxins.
Of these, 180 are known to cause cancer in humans or animals; 217 are toxic to your brain and nervous system; and 208 have been found to cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests. Clearly, nothing good can come from exposure to so many toxic compounds.

Genital Malformations and Autism—The Result of Overexposure to Toxins

A more recent study, published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology,5, 6, 7, 8last month, found that every one percent increase in genital malformations in newborn males within a particular county was associated with a 283 percent increased rate in autism.
According to the researchers, genital malformations such as micropenis, undescended testicles, and hypospadias (when the urethra forms on the underside of the penis) are signs of exposure to harmful toxins. And the correlation between genital malformation and autism in turn offer strong support for the notion that autism is the result of parental overexposure to environmental toxins.
In all, 100 million American medical records were analyzed, and rates of genital malformations and autism were assessed by county. Deviations from the nationwide baseline were interpreted as being the result of local environmental factors. According to one of the authors, Andrey Rzhetsky, Ph.D., professor of genetic medicine and human genetics at the University of Chicago:
"Autism appears to be strongly correlated with rate of congenital malformations of the genitals in males across the country. This gives an indicator of environmental load and the effect is surprisingly strong... We interpret the results of this study as a strong environmental signal."
Interestingly, every additional $1,000 in income above the county average was also associated with a three percent increased rate in autism. Could this mean that those with higher incomes buy more household, personal care, and beauty products that turn out to be toxic?

State Mandated Diagnosis of Autism

A primary factor in diagnosis was dependent on whether the child's school provided services for children with autism, thus requiring additional expense. State-mandated diagnosis of autism by clinicians for special education services was linked with a near 99 percent decrease in the rate of incidence for autism. If the school was required to pay for special needs, the likelihood of diagnosis dropped significantly.
"We interpret the results of this study as a strong environmental signal," Rzhetsky said. "For future genetic studies we may have to take into account where data were collected, because it's possible that you can get two identical kids in two different counties and one would have autism and the other would not."9

11 Brain-Harming Culprits Identified

Last month, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai published a report identifying one dozen common chemicals (listed below) known to disrupt brain development and cause brain damage, neurological abnormalities, reduced IQ, and aggressiveness in children.10, 11 The authors call for the implementation of urgent preventive strategies to quell the trend of brain damage, stating:
"We postulate that even more neurotoxicants remain undiscovered. To control the pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity, we propose a global prevention strategy.
Untested chemicals should not be presumed to be safe to brain development, and chemicals in existing use and all new chemicals must therefore be tested for developmental neurotoxicity.
To coordinate these efforts and to accelerate translation of science into prevention, we propose the urgent formation of a new international clearinghouse."
What many don't realize is that there are literally tens of thousands of chemicals in use that have never been tested for safety. When the US National Toxicology Program was enacted in 1978, some 62,000 chemicals that were already in use were simply grandfathered in, even though they'd never been tested for toxicity.
The ramifications of this action is now becoming increasingly evident, and with regular intervals we realize that yet another prevalent chemical is causing harm that no one ever suspected. Bisphenol-A (BPA), used in plastic products, is just one of the most recent examples.
Lead (processed chocolate, gasoline, paint, toys, batteries, pipes, pottery, roofing materials, and cosmetics)Methylmercury(organic mercury found primarily in fish)Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (fish, especially farmed fish)
Arsenic (a common contaminant in fluoride added to water supplies. Also found in wood preservatives and pesticides)Toluene (paint thinner, fingernail polish, and leather tanning)Manganese (drinking water and soy infant formula)
Fluoride (fluoridated tap water, dental products, some antibiotics and medicines, tea, processed foods, and drinks)Chlorpyrifos (an organophosphate insecticide used in pest bait containers)Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) (a pesticide banned in 1972 that still persists in the environment, including in the food chain)
Tetrachloroethylene (PERC)12 (dry-cleaning fabrics and metal degreasing operations)Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs(flame-retardant chemicals found in upholstery, mattresses, clothing, television, and computer housings)Ethanol

Organic Diet Is Part and Parcel of a Less Toxic Life

A recent article in The Atlantic,13 which is well worth reading in its entirety, discusses this Harvard report and offers a number of excellent quotes from the researchers with regards to how we can protect ourselves while regulatory wheels keep turning at a snail's pace. James Hamblin writes:
"'So you recommend that pregnant women eat organic produce?' I asked Grandjean, a Danish-born researcher who travels around the world studying delayed effects of chemical exposure on children. 'That's what I advise people who ask me, yes. 

It's the best way of preventing exposure to pesticides.' Grandjean estimates that there are about 45 organophosphate pesticides on the market, and 'most have the potential to damage a developing nervous system.'
Landrigan had issued that same warning, unprompted, when I spoke to him the week before. 'I advise pregnant women to try to eat organic because it reduces their exposure by 80 or 90 percent,' he told me. 'These are the chemicals I really worry about in terms of American kids, the organophosphate pesticides like chlorpyrifos.'"

Fluoride and Glyphosate—Two Toxins That Need to Be Urgently Addressed

When you consider how pervasive those 12 toxins are (not to mention the thousands of others, which we still know little about), it's no wonder so many children are born with severe health problems and disabilities. Fluoride alone, which is still being added to many public water supplies around the US, can contribute to a seven-point drop in a child's IQ score, on average!14, 15
Why in the world are we still adding fluoride to water supplies? Even if ingesting fluoride had a benefit on teeth (which it clearlydoesn't), is it really worth sacrificing intelligence for fewer cavities? Fluoride isn't the sole culprit, of course. According to a 2012 paper16 published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Americans have collectively "forfeited" a whopping 41 million IQ points as a result of lead, mercury, and pesticide exposure.
All of these brain-harming toxins also take a massive toll on aging Americans. According to recent research,17 the annual death toll from Alzheimer's disease (a severe form of dementia) is now estimated to be 503,000, making it the third most lethal disease in the US. Approximately 200,000 of these deaths occur in those under the age of 65, who develop early onset of Alzheimer's.
Recent research18 has also linked exposure to the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) with an increased risk of Alzheimer's. The use of DDT began during the second half of World War II, when it was liberally sprayed to control diseases such as malaria and typhus. Once the war was over, it began being used as an agricultural pesticide. (Monsanto was one of more than a dozen companies that manufactured the chemical.) It was eventually banned in 1972, when the health risks revealed in the bookSilent Spring led to public outcry.
The suggestion that DDT exposure may contribute to Alzheimer's, decades after exposure, hint at what the ramifications ofglyphosate are likely to be in the years to come. According to Dr. Don Huber, an expert in an area of science that relates to the toxicity of genetically engineered (GE) foods, the harmful effects of glyphosate actually surpass those of DDT! It's quite clear that the toxicity of this weed killer has been grossly underestimated.
Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) was approved in 1974 in the US,19 and has been aggressively used since then. An estimated ONE BILLION pounds of it is used on crop fields each and every year. As with DDT, we're now seeing research linking glyphosate exposure to dramatic jumps in disease rates, including autism. The primary difference is that the effects are showingfar sooner, and appear more evidently linked than in the case of DDT.

Soy Formula Associated with Seizures in Autistic Children

In related news, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found a possible link between infant soy formula and increased rates of seizures in autistic children. According to Medical News Today:20
"The study found excess seizures among girls and in the total sample of 1,949 children. The soy-seizure link reached borderline significance among boys, who comprised 87 percent of the children described in the database under study. Seizures – caused by uncontrolled electrical currents in the brain – occur in many neurological disorders including epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, Down syndrome, and autism...
[C]hildren with autism who were fed soy formula had 2.6 times as many febrile seizures as the children fed non-soy formula in the database... [T]hat increase is worrying, [Cara] Westmark says. 'The prevalence of autism is increasing and currently affects one American child in 88. Soy is a widespread ingredient in many food products and 25 percent of infant formulas are soy based, so this is something that needs to be studied. If the child is lactose intolerant, there are alternatives that a pediatrician can recommend.'"

Parents Beware: Infant Soy Formula Can Cause Severe Harm

This certainly isn't the first time infant soy formula has been linked to health risks. It's often touted as an ideal alternative for colicky babies or those who are unable to tolerate milk based formulas, but evidence actually suggests that soy formula may be one of the absolute most dangerous foods you can give your child, whether he or she is autistic or not. For starters, it's been estimated that infants who are fed soy formula take in three to five birth control pills' worth of estrogen every day, depending upon the particular batch of formula and whether your baby is a big eater. As a result of such astronomical amounts of this female sex hormone, infants who are fed soy formula have an increased risk of:
Food allergiesThyroid disorders
Behavioral problemsEarly puberty and fertility problems
AsthmaCancer

Infants who are fed soy formula are also at increased risk for developing behavioral problems due to the phytates found in soy, which block the absorption of essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc, all which are crucial to the proper brain and emotional development. Phytates also cause poor bone development. Besides that, soy infant formula also contains another dangerous element: manganese. While manganese is an essential nutrient found in soil and ground water, it becomes highly toxic when consumed in excess, and can adversely affect your child's intelligence if consumed during the stage of early brain development. Last but certainly not least, the vast majority of soy grown in the US is genetically engineered soy, which has its own health risks over and above those associated with Roundup.

Other Environmental Factors That Likely Contribute to Autism

Besides overexposure to the environmental toxins already mentioned, I believe there's a variety of other important factors that also contribute to the rise in autism spectrum disorder, including but not limited to the following. The countless possible combinations of these and other factors could help explain why there's such a wide spectrum of autistic behavior:
  • Gut dysbiosis, especially in combination with vaccines and their additives like mercury (thimerosal), aluminum, and others, which are known to damage your mitochondria—the powerhouses in your body's cells that produce energy. Your gastrointestinal system is often referred to as your "second brain," containing some 100 million neurons—more than in either your spinal cord or your peripheral nervous system. Research by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride shows that children born with severely damaged gut flora are at a significantly increased risk of vaccine damage, which may help explain why some children develop symptoms of autism after receiving one or more childhood vaccinations while others do not.
  • Vitamin D deficiency. The link between vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women and the proportionate jump in autism has been highlighted by Dr. John Cannell. Vitamin D receptors appear in a wide variety of brain tissue early in the fetal development, and activated vitamin D receptors increase nerve growth in your brain. I believe vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy is a MAJOR contributing factor to autism, especially when you consider that vitamin D also helps in thedetoxification of mercury. Without sufficient amounts of vitamin D, any subsequent toxic assaults—regardless of the source—will be further magnified
  • Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from cell phones, cell towers, Wi-Fi devices, which can trap heavy metals inside of nerve cells, accelerate heavy metal toxicity, and hinder natural detoxification processes
  • Microbial toxins, such as mold. Children with autism not only have overwhelmed detoxification pathways and often heavy metal toxicity, but, according to Dr. Klinghardt, their bodies are also frequently beset by toxic microbes

How to Limit Your Chemical Exposure

There's no doubt that most people are being exposed to too many toxic chemicals. The results are plain for all to see, as brain disorders in both the very young and the elderly are skyrocketing; not to mention that people of all ages are increasingly ravaged by chronic diseases of all kinds as well. If you want to protect your own health, and the health of your family, I believe you simplymust become more vigilant about the chemicals you come into contact with on a daily basis, and this certainly includes the foods you eat.
Organically-grown, biodynamic whole foods are really the key to success here, and, as an added bonus, when you eat right, you're also optimizing your body's natural detoxification system, which can help eliminate toxins your body encounters from other sources. Here are a dozen recommendations that will help limit your family's toxic exposure. Please remember that all of these become even more important if you're pregnant or planning a pregnancy, since your toxic load will be transferred on to your child.
  1. As much as possible, buy and eat organic produce and free-range, organic foods to reduce your exposure to agricultural chemicals. Eat mostly raw, fresh foods, steering clear of processed, prepackaged foods of all kinds. This way, you automatically avoid artificial food additives, including dangerous artificial sweeteners, food coloring, and MSG.
  2. Rather than eating conventional or farm-raised fish, which are often heavily contaminated with PCBs and mercury, supplement with a high-quality purified krill oil, or eat fish that is wild-caught and lab tested for purity.
  3. Store your food and beverages in glass rather than plastic, and avoid using plastic wrap and canned foods (which are often lined with BPA-containing liners).
  4. Have your tap water tested and, if contaminants are found, install an appropriate water filter on all your faucets (even those in your shower or bath).
  5. Only use natural cleaning products in your home.
  6. Switch over to natural brands of toiletries such as shampoo, toothpaste, antiperspirants, and cosmetics. The Environmental Working Group has a great database21 to help you find personal care products that are free of phthalates and other potentially dangerous chemicals. I also offer one of the highest quality organic skin care lines, shampoo and conditioner, and body butter that are completely natural and safe.
  7. Avoid using artificial air fresheners, dryer sheets, fabric softeners, or other synthetic fragrances.
  8. Replace your non-stick pots and pans with ceramic or glass cookware.
  9. When redoing your home, look for "green," toxin-free alternatives in lieu of regular paint and vinyl floor coverings.
  10. Replace your vinyl shower curtain with one made of fabric, or install a glass shower door. Most all flexible plastics, like shower curtains, contain dangerous plasticizers like phthalates.
  11. Limit your use of drugs (prescription and over-the-counter) as much as possible. Drugs are chemicals too, and they will leave residues and accumulate in your body over time.
  12. Avoid spraying pesticides around your home or insect repellants that contain DEET on your body. There are safe, effective, and natural alternatives out there.
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Gloucester, VA - Where Did the Money Go?

Many residents of Gloucester County and several of the County’s Supervisors repeatedly asked the School Board and their retiring leader to repair Page Middle School after the April 2011 tornado.  County records reflect the Page schoolhouse, its contents and property in the open were insured for a total of $13,513,744 at the time of the tornado.  
 
The insurance carrier and a separate firm hired by the School Board concluded the amount of damage was several million dollars less than the maximum coverage amount. The School Board paid at least $27,000 in tax payer money to hire the separate firm.  The insurance carrier’s estimate to return the school to an upgraded and fully functional state and to repair or replace all outbuildings, lights, fences, the concession stand and bleachers was $8,235,687.  This left $5,278,057 in insurance contingency funds to cover unforeseen tornado related damage and costs during construction. 
 
The insurance estimate also included the installation, lease and removal of temporary modular classrooms to house displaced Page students during construction, based on an 18 to 24 month recovery period.  The School Board now estimates it will cost tax payers over $300,000 to remove the modular units because the insurance money to cover this scope of work will be used to lease the units for two additional years.  This and many other additional costs are a direct result of the School Board’s financially irresponsible decision to design and build a new schoolhouse on undeveloped land that will take over four years to complete. What is more appalling is they did this during a time of decreasing school enrollment and economic instability. 
 
If Page had been repaired it would have been open for instruction within two years of the tornado and the County’s out of pocket expense would have been $5,000,000 or less to walk away with over $30,000,000 in school assets.  Instead,Gloucester has what will be a semi-functional schoolhouse and complex, $20,000,000 dollars worth of debt and now according to the School Board, budget shortfalls. 
 
The School Board and their retiring leader made some very poor choices that will render negative impacts on the Gloucester Community for several years to come. This is something every voter and potential School Board candidate should keep in mind when election season rolls around.
 
 
Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.
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Undermining The Constitution A HISTORY OF LAWLESS GOVERNMENT (Part 7)

English: First Bank of the United States
English: First Bank of the United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Thomas James Norton

THE RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION WAS CREATED BY CONGRESS WITHOUT AUTHORITY GRANTED TO IT BY THE CONSTITUTION, AND ITS OPERATIONS HAVE BEEN BEYOND THE SPHERE OF GOVERNMENT
following the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, the next important venture of Congress way in creating (June 22, 1932) the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, after the panic of 1929.
It was fashioned after the War Finance Corporation of the Wilson administration. But the War Finance Corporation had been founded on the principle laid down in 1819 (4 Wheaton, 316) by Chief Justice Marshall with regard to a banking corporation. That is, to meet its own necessities: -- collecting taxes, transmitting money, issuing bonds -- the United States can create a corporation. Maryland, which was taxing the issues of the United States Bank, contended that as neither bank nor corporation is mentioned in the Constitution, it was beyond the power of Congress, to set up either.
Bank Act under Sweeping Clause sustained
The last clause in the grants of power to Congress authorizes it to make all laws which shall be "necessary and
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proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested" in any department or officer of the Government. Under that language the Court held that it was for Congress to determine whether it needed the assistance of a bank in performing its governmental functions.
So it was for Congress daring World War I to determine whether a War Finance Corporation was "necessary and proper" to the war effort under the war powers.[1]
Operations of Corporation not governmental
But the Reconstruction Finance Corporation does not in any sense come within the requirements stated. It was un constitutionally created and it has pursued an unconstitutional course.
The first and most important activities of the Corporation were in reconstructing the financial status of banks, railroads, and other corporations threatened with collapse. Loans of the money of the taxpayees to banks, railroads and other big concerns ran into the billions. But thousands of individuals and businesses of small class had to suffer unaided the consequences of the panic. Whether that distinction or discrimination was warranted by a consideration of the relative importance to national stability of the
1. The argument of counsel for Maryland against the constitutionality of the act creating the Bank of the United States was very learned. The question was discussed pro and con by able men long after the decision, In Jackson's administration a recharter was refused and the validly of the decision by Marshall rejected. Senator Benton of Missouri leading the opposition. In the light of the history of banking by the National Government, with its failures, with its inflations and deflations, and with its operating as the machine for manufacturing debt, one is justified in lamenting that it did not from the first do its fiscal business with bankers, restricting its activity in the field of finance closely to its granted power, "to coin money and regulate the value thereof."


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applicants for loans is not known. It probably was, for money enough did not exist to "bail out" all that thus became involved in the catastrophe, for which the practices of many banks were much blamable.
A dispatch from Washington in April, 1949, said that the Committee on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, headed by ex-President Hoover, had asked Congress "to put the Government out of the money-lending business and eliminate 30 Federal agencies engaged in lending, including the Reconstruction Finance Corporation." Some months later another dispatch said that the proposal had been attacked by the Corporation as an "excursion into the controversial field of political economy." Of course, no bureau will "consent to death."
Reconstruction Finance Corporation departed from purpose
After the Corporation had enabled many forms of big money to recover their financial balance, it went out through the wide world scattering the savings of the people. Loans were made in South American countries and others for the construction of highways, railroads, and public utilities.
Under the National Defense Clause it lies in the judgment of Congress, the General Manager of the United States, as to whether the preservation of small nations friendly to us and favoring the governmental philosophy for which we stand, warrants the expenditure of American money for the protection of them from subjugation by Communism, the openly avowed and aggressive enemy of capitalism.
But the use of money for the uplift of lowly countries,


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and for the other purposes mentioned, is without constitutional authority.
From time to time it was reported that a bank or a railroad or some other borrower had paid its loan, but there were many that never settled. In the report of the Corporation for 1948, the 17th year of operation, it is shown that $85,000,000 was held to meet "estimated losses in collection." If that estimate was calculated on the record of previous years, then its losses of the money of the taxpayers have been colossal.
The spender going stronger than ever
The United States News of October 7, 1949, reported from Washington that, instead of going out of action, as the Hoover Committee believed it should do, the Corporation disclosed that "its loans to business have reached an all-time high, and applications still are being received in increasing number." It reported, on October 21, loans to business -- not to aid Government in its functioning -- as $416,000,000 to 5,400 borrowers, with 1,200 new applications a month.
"The trend is sharply upward," says the report, because the commercial banks are becoming "choosey." That is, they are backing out of the field which they should have fought from the beginning to hold, and leaving it to the unconstitutional occupancy of Government.
The Associated Press reported on November 9, 1949, that Senator Fulbright of Arkansas, chairman of a subcommittee of the Senate on Banking, investigating policies of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, said in a conference with the applicant for a loan of $44,000,000 that such a transaction would not be "in accord with RFC ob-


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jectives." To newsmen after the conference he said that he did not think it "proper to hand out public money to private industry." He named three companies which had borrowed of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and "now are being run by the Government."
That is what the corporation of Fascism is for -- to take over private business.
Another press report said that the applicant had already borrowed from the Corporation $197,000,000.
In May, 1950, the Associated Press reported from Houston, Texas, that Jesse Jones, who had for many years managed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, said in his newspaper:
"If you have any old loans that you would like to get rid of, you may sell them to the RFC -- that is, if they are big enough and not sound enough."
And in the next month a corporation to which RFC had loaned $37,500,000 defaulted, was put in receivership by a Federal court in Columbus, Ohio, and at the receiver's sale the RFC made a bid of $6,000,000 more of the money of the taxpayers to get control of the assets of the borrower.
At the same time a committee of the Senate was looking into the loan record of the RFC, basing its action on reports of lendings "to new ventures speculative in character." It is for banks, not government, to lend money. Every youth coming out of school, and every graduate from the assembly lines of the universities, must be made to comprehend that the grant of power to Congress by the Constitution "to lay and collect taxes ... to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States" does not authorize (1) the creation of


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a corporation or ( 2) the lending of the money of the taxpayer.
Government out of bounds will not return
Thus, when Government has once fixed its foot in the door, it does not withdraw. That is a fact to cause grief in the mind of the constitutionalist. But greater grief comes from beholding the complete lack of understanding in the man of business of what is being done to him and to his country! The Government at Washington, having multiplied by bureaus the number of its feet until it is a centipede, now has a foot in the door of many commercial and industrial concerns; of agriculture, of banking, of building, of housing, of relief, of the schools, and of many other interests not within its constitutional field.
Will their ignorance entitle men of business to pardon for having contributed to the wreck of the Republic?
The 80th Congress, after lopping off some of the activities of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, continued it "to aid in financing agriculture, commerce, and industry" -- which are not of any constitutional concern of the National Government.
How one Bank grew to thousands
It has been a long progress -- or descent -- from that first bank for the needs of Government to all sorts of commercial banks in competition with citizens in the banking fields -- to 7,000 National Banks, to the Farm Loan Banks, the Home Loan Banks, the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, the Export-Import Bank, the World Bank, and others.
From what has been shown, it is dear that the Recon-


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struction Finance Corporation has not been engaged in helping to carry "into execution the foregoing powers" of the Government, as the bank was held to be doing in the case decided by Marshall.
As statesmen and scholars and citizens long ago ceased to question whether any act of Government is "in pursuance" of the Constitution, the validity of the Act of 1932 creating this Corporation never was tested.
Irrigation by money of the taxpayers
In 1946 Federal aid was poured out in a flood to States and individuals; 50 million for milk and luncheons to schools; over 10 million for vocational rehabilitation; 57 million for soil conservation (the cover of aid to agriculture); 20 million for cooperative agricultural extension; over 10 million for general public health; over 9 million to control venereal diseases; and 5 million to control tuberculosis.
Those subjects are under the police power of the States, no part of which they yielded to the National Government, as they gave over coinage, treaty making, and some other nonlocal subjects by section 10 of Article I. As elsewhere shown by authority, the police power cannot be abdicated by the States nor usurped by the Nation. In the instances just before given, the course taken by Washington was usurpation and therefore unconstitutional.
Following the Reconstruction Finance Corporation came the Tennessee Valley Authority, the first step in "the electrification of America," a string of loan banks and credit corporations, and many other corporations having not the remotest relation to the constitutional functioning of the Government of the United States.


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How invalid legislation infects the courts
"For the purposes of this case," said Justice Stone, writing the decision of the Supreme Court (306 U. S. 466) on a question whether the salaries of employees of the Home Owners Loan Corporation were taxable by the State of New York, "we may assume [italics inserted] that the creation of the Home Owners Loan Corporation was a constitutional exercise of the powers of the Federal Government." A text writer has already taken that decision as settling the proposition that all those corporations were constitutionally set up!
In creating the Home Owners Loan Corporation, Congress declared that it "shall be an instrumentality of the United States." But it could not be made so by a declaration if its functions were not to be governmental, as the functions of the banking corporation were in the case arising in Maryland. Congress gets power, not from its own declarations, but from the Constitution only. Nor can its proclamation of an "emergency," like that in the National Labor Relations Act, endow it with power not specified in the Constitution.

This brief account of the origin and works of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation shows the great danger of any break in the levee of the Constitution. The flood will go beyond control. The damage to taxpayers and the Republic by that Corporation is beyond estimate.

http://www.barefootsworld.net/  Thanks to the fine folks over at Barefoot's world.
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