Christian Nation
Myth: Most of the Founding Fathers were Deists who believed in keeping religion completely out of the government. The United States was not founded as a Christian nation, but as a secular nation where any and every religion was to be tolerated.

Truth: Contrary to whatPresident Obama has stated several times, the United States was founded as a Christian nation.

Commerce Clause
Myth: The Commerce Clause gives the government the power to regulate anything that is related to or substantially affects commerce in more than one state.

Truth: The Constitution says that “congress shall have the power to regulate commerce among the several states…” The original intent of the Commerce Clause was to make “normal” or “regular” commerce between the states; to stop states from taxing each other.

Constitutional Interpretation
Myth: The Constitution was intended to change with society, as society progressed. Its meaning is very flexible, and so it should be interpreted to reflect the sensibilities of the current generation, as well as deal with new problems that can arise that the Founders could not have anticipated.

Truth: The Constitution means and will always mean what it meant when it was adopted. We need to interpret the Constitution in such a way that it gives the text the meaning it had when it was adopted.

Defense and National Security
Myths: “CO2 emissions are the greatest threat to America’s Security.” Barbara Boxer

Truth: National defense is a mandatory, and the primary, function of the federal government, and is used to ensure Americans’ rights are protected from foreign nations.

Drug Regulation
Myth: Drug companies are ripping their customers off and harming victims of diseases by charging inordinately high amounts for their products. Government should control the prices of drugs, or medicine should be produced by the government.

Truth: the only way to develop new drugs is to invest heavily in research and development of drugs. Lowering profits will simply lower research for new drugs, not helping patients but hurting them.

Earmarks
Myth: Earmarks that assist your region are always worthwhile projects, while others that only benefit someone else’s region are pork.

Truth: The General Welfare Clause requires Congress to use its enumerated powers for the general welfare of the entire nation. Funding projects which do not benefit the entire nation are unconstitutional.

Energy Policy
Myth: it is the Federal Government’s duty to provide America with “green” sources of power, so they can also control the energy use of any given state to ensure they are following green guidelines.

Truth: The Constitution has given the federal government specific and limited powers. Nowhere in the Constitution is the government authorized (even implicitly) to regulate energy for any reason.

Entitlements
Myth: The Second Bill of Rights, proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, entitles Americans to Employment with a living wage, freedom from unfair business competition and monopolies, housing, medical care, education, and social security.

Truth: For the founding fathers, protecting rights meant providing an environment where free men could strive and succeed, as well as fail. Private charity will always be more efficient and effective than government-controlled entitlements.

Enumerated Powers
Myth: It is okay for the government to do things because it is for our good or it is within the American tradition.

Truth: What the Tenth Amendment says, in a nutshell, is that if a power has not been delegated to the federal government, that government simply does not have it.

Environmental Regulation
Myth: The EPA should be allowed to make nationwide regulations on things like greenhouse gasses, because they are the only part of the government can make choices in relation to protecting the environment.

Truth: The Congress can pass (and has passed) laws in relation to environmental regulation, by passing the proposed law as a bill, and having the bill approved by the President. This is the correct means of passing a national law.

Federalism
Myth: The continuing demand for expanding government services which brings with it the need for more robust taxing power requires America to rely on a centralized federal government.

Truth: The United States is a federal system. Both state and federal governments draw their power from the people in the form of constitutions which define the powers and responsibilities that the people have delegated to their governments. The Constitution grants the federal government few and limited powers, with the rest reserved to the states and the people.

Federal Regulation
Myth: Federal regulation helps Americans by ensuring that they and their businesses are not hurt by others.

Truth: Not only is the vast majority of Federal regulation unconstitutional, but it has also become the single most harmful force strangling the economic prosperity of Americans. Regulation has grown into de facto legislation, violating the Constitution’s grant of legislative power to congress.

Freedom of Speech
Myth: Freedom of speech allows people to say anything, anytime, anywhere.

Truth: The First Amendment protects freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition from encroachment by congress. Without it, religious minorities could be persecuted, the government could establish a national religion, protesters could be silenced, the press would be banned from criticizing the government, and citizens could not assemble for social change.

General Welfare Clause
Myth: The General Welfare Clause gives the government the power to spend money on anything it wants, such as welfare entitlements, so long as Congress deems their action beneficial for the general public.

Truth: The General Welfare Clause was solely intended to ensure that when Congress was acting within its enumerated powers, that it was also limited by the absolute requirement that its actions would benefit the general public as a whole instead of a special interest group.

Good Government
Myth: A good government is that which takes care of the physical and social needs of its citizens.

Truth: The founders believed that a good government was one that protected the freedoms of its people and ensured that they were given justice.

Hate Speech
Myth: Speech that attacks a person or group on the basis of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, is not protected under the Constitution.

Truth: The First Amendment says that Congress cannot ban a person from saying anything, or from distributing thoughts through print or other mediums. States and organizations can regulate what kind of language takes place under its jurisdiction, even criminalizing it if their state constitution doesn’t contain free speech protections, but the Federal Government cannot.

International Law and Regulation
Myth: The President can make treaties between the US and other nations.

Truth: The Constitution (in Article II, Section 2) states that the President has the “Power, and by the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the senate present concur.” Federalist 64 clarifies that “Neither the President nor the Senate, solely, can complete a treaty; they are checks upon each other, and are balanced as to produce security to the people.”

Internet Regulation
Myth: The government should regulate the Internet to ensure that the big telecom corporations don’t limit users’ freedoms.

Truth: The First Amendment states that Congress shall make no law “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press” thus, as the Internet is both a combination of the press and free speech (on a new technological level), the Government does not have the power to regulate it.

Judicial Activism
Myth: The Supreme Court issues the highest law in America. Whatever it says goes.

Truth: The Constitution is above the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court merely interprets it when there is question as to what the Constitution states. See Original Intent.

Labor Regulation
Myth: it is the duty of the Federal Government to regulate labor, to ensure that laborers are not mistreated

Truth: The Commerce Clause of the Constitution only allows the regulation of inter-state or international commerce, thus while the Federal Government can create its own system for dealing with Federal employees, regulation of wage by the Federal Government is prohibited, though the Constitution does not prohibit States from regulating their own commerce.

Limited Federal Government
Myth: America’s Constitution is an obstacle to thinkers and policymakers who otherwise could act freely to redistribute wealth to better our nation.

Truth: The Constitution places strict limits on the federal government in order to allow liberty, prosperity, and private benevolence to prevail. “A true understanding of freedom believes that our government should interfere in our lives as little as possible. Under this principle of freedom, we have the liberty to live under the constraints of God’s moral law rather than under the regimentation of man’s law.” – Michael Farris

Living Constitution
Myth: The Constitution was intended to change with society, as society changes. Its meaning is very flexible, and so it should be interpreted in such a way to reflect the sensibilities and priorities of the current generation, as well as deal with new problems that can arise that the Founders could not have anticipated.

Truth: The Constitution was intended to change with society as society changes, but only through amendments, which is why Article 5 defines that orderly process. All three branches of the federal government are required to follow the literal meaning of the Constitution’s words, as it’s authors intended them. See Original Intent. “If constitutional protections are but formless inkblots, then no American is truly safe from his or her government.” – Doug Bandow

Obamacare
Myth: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , is a Constitutionally allowed act.

Truth: The PPACA is completely unconstitutional. It forces people to buy health care or face a penalty, theCommerce Clause only allows the government to ensure that interstate commerce runs smoothly. Nothing within the Constitution allows the government to force a citizen to buy something.

Original Intent
Myth: Original Intent is an outdated way of interpreting the Constitution and is obsolete because it does not take modern circumstances into consideration.

Truth: The original meaning or intent of the Constitution is not merely what the judges or our legislators say it is.

Presidential Wartime Powers
Myth: As “Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States…”, the President has the Constitutional authority to order military action whenever he sees it as necessary.

Truth: While the President is commander-in-chief, this was seen by the founders to be limited by the power given to congress to declare war, control military spending, etc.

Rights
Myth: All people have a right to health care, a job, paid vacation time, and a home, by nature of the fact that they are human beings.

Truth: The Declaration of Independence shows that rights are things that every human being has at birth. Things that are not given by the government, and cannot be taken away by them.  While the government can chose to give people things like health care, or paid vacations, or the like, these are not rights, and what the government gives, it can take away.

Rule of Law
Myth: If the American people want something, Congress and the President can pass a law authorizing it, and the Supreme Court should honor the will of the people.

Truth: Everyone, including elected officials, is required to obey the Constitution. In the United States, no man is above the law. If a law needs to be changed, Congress and the President can do so, and if the Constitution needs to be adjusted, the Founding Fathers made the Constitution amendable by congress and the states.

Separation of Church and State
Myth: The Constitution states that there must be a wall of separation between the Church and State.

Truth: The Constitution reflects the founders respect for the importance of the morality of people and the need to keep the state, which is another word for government, out of the area of religion. The modern concept of a Wall of Separation, reverses the intended meaning of the Establishment Clause and seeks instead to keep religion out of schools and public places. This is completely the opposite of what the clear wording of the Constitution states.

States Rights
Myth: The government gives us our rights through the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and it can do anything it wants to so long as it does not conflict with these rights.

Truth: The Constitution in the preamble and 10th Amendment, state that all government in America receives its authority from the American people, and provides that “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.”

Taxation
Myth: The government may ignore the wisdom of the Founding Fathers and tax the American people to death.

Truth: The taxation powers of the federal government, like the federal government itself were meant to be very limited by the U.S. Constitution.

Waste and Fraud
Myth: Government programs are more effective and more efficient than private non-profit programs.

Truth: Centralized government gives fewer people more control and this is a proven recipe for waste, fraud, and abuse.