Why Enumerate Powers?
The Constitution of the United States provides a blueprint for the federal government, including its internal structure, powers, and relationship to the governments of the separate states that brought it into being. It is a mere 4,400 words long and spells out how our government is to work. All of which prompts the question: Given the brevity and simplicity of the U.S. Constitution, how have we ended up with such a gargantuan, expensive, and inefficient federal government, the largest, most expensive, and most powerful government ever created. The answer is that we have neglected the cardinal legal principle upon which the entire Constitution is based: the doctrine of enumerated powers.
Under the Constitution only those powers that are enumerated — that is, granted explicitly — are legitimate. Otherwise put, the federal government has no authority unless it is enumerated in the Constitution; all other aspects of human conduct that may be subject to government control are understood to be reserved to state and local governments — or to be outside the realm of government authority altogether, reserved unto individuals to act upon as they see fit.
The principle of enumerated powers was made explicit by James Madison in The Federalist, No. 45:
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