Limits on Federal Power?

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

James Madison, The Federalist No. 51

I do not think that the modern interpretation of Federal powers includes the concept of limits or an obligation to control the reach of the central leviathan.

Furthermore, the Commerce Clause, 16 words where most of the modern Federal intervention authority is resting upon, is probably not understood in the context of what was intended by the framers. Who in their right mind would ever think that the intent of the Commerce Clause was to provide unlimited Federal powers to essentially intervene in any private transaction for a broadly defined general welfare purpose of the citizens? The Constitution and Bill of Rights was designed to protect citizens from Federal intervention not to be the security for meddling. And this is what it has become, a document that every leftist uses to justify many too many actions.