As White House spokesman Jay Carney put it, Obama was calling “on Congress to fulfill its responsibility to the American people and give America a raise.”

Yet at no point in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which lists the powers of Congress, nor any other part of the nation’s founding document, does it say that the legislature has a responsibility to “give a raise” to the citizenry.

Earning more money is something to be voluntarily negotiated between a worker and employer, not something granted by an all-powerful, benevolent government.

For decades, liberals have wanted the government to play an increasingly paternalistic role in people’s lives and Obama’s new favorite line makes it sound as if Washington is everybody’s boss.