It is fine to enjoy sports either as a spectator or participant but I don't understand why Congress should take up its valuable time today to weigh the issue of the BCS playoffs, use of performance enhancing drugs or any other sports related issue.

I don't usually voice my political opinions either here on my blog or on Facebook. I have however addressed my concern that Congress seems to divert its attention from matters of immediate concern to focus on the item that seems in the news or more important to a niche than to our country. Perhaps it is time for members of the House and Senate to re-read the Constitution, Article 1 and become more familiar with their role and responsibility. We each need our Representatives to pay attention to the matters that effect us all - our men and women at war, health care, our economy and so forth. It is less important which college teams make it to the National College Football Championship Playoffs or which baseball player hit extra homeruns because he took drugs.

When the Founders laid out the blueprint for our government in the Constitution, the first thing they did, in Article I Section 1, was to specify that "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States..."

Most of Article I consists of structural and procedural details for the Senate and the House of Representatives. While all parts of the Article are necessary, there are a few points that bear extra and repeated emphasis. These have to do with the powers granted, and the limitations placed upon the Congress.

Just what are the powers granted to Congress in Article I? Financial powers include taxation, borrowing, coining money (and setting up systems of valuation for money, and weights and measures), and punishment of counterfeiters. Military powers include declaring war, creating and regulating an army and navy, regulating and calling the militia to active duty. Other powers include regulating commerce, naturalization of immigrants, bankruptcy, and a seat of government (which turned out to be the District of Columbia); setting up mail delivery, patent and copyright protection, and federal courts; and defining and punishing international crimes (such as those committed on the high seas).

The common thread running through the specific powers granted here is that they pertain to matters outside the natural jurisdiction of individual states. As James Madison explained in Federalist Paper Number 45, "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will for the most part be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties and properties of the people; and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

Conspicuously absent in Article I is the Congressional responsibility to determine which college team plays in a national championship game.