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To: KC Burke

The Articles of Confederation were more like a treaty among sovereign powers, the States.

If one state violated its obligations to another state, it would set a precedent for other states to do the same. The Articles in this sense were a failure.

When the Constitutional Convention came together the intent was to strengthen the AOC but it was quickly seen that a new structure was needed to enforce a constitution on all states.

Americans at the time of the AOC wanted interstate commerce to be uniform. The wanted their God given rights to be respected in every state.

So the AOC needed to be scrapped, a complete makeover was needed.

If a CC comes together in our time, it is highly unlikely that states could reinvent the US Constitution or scrap it altogether. The People in the flyover states do not want to grow government. They do not want socialism or the disease of Detroit from spreading into their emerging urban areas. So in effect People today (especially in flyover country) want to strengthen the original principles of limited government that formed the foundation of the original US Constitution.

So it’s a different intent and motivation that calls for a CC today. And because it is ratified at the State level (50 states), there is zero chance that a CC would install socialist or communist manifesto.

A CC today will give us:
1. An amendment to repeal the 16th Amendment. The 16th was never a people’s amendment nor beneficial to states. It about allowing the federal political class to suck wealth from free Americans.
2. An amendment to repeal the 17th Amendment OR a new amendment to allow state legislatures to recall their wayward US Senators would boost the 10th Amendment and bind US Senators to state interests.
3. An amendment to preserve the US dollar and to enact a process of governing its value.
4. A social amendment that prohibits the federal government from interfering in any religious belief that was prevalent at the time of the founding. New groups would not be able to circumvent or evade by defining themselves to be a religion. New proposed religions would be required to have a lead time before they were officially recognized by the US government by vote of 2/3s of both chambers of Congress. A marriage provision defining it to be between one man and one woman would fit in here.
5. An amendment to limit abuses of the commerce clause as Constitutional law professor Randy Barnett wrote about so well in the WSJ in 2011.


56 posted on 07/11/2013 6:24:55 PM PDT by Hostage (Be Breitbart!)
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To: Hostage
The original Articles of Confederation ostensibly proved to be too "weak" for the structure of an effective government, their biggest problem, IMO, being the allowance of economic warfare of a sort between the states. Interesting that when the FDR SCOTUS wanted to go around the Constitution, they re-interpreted the concept of Interstate Commerce.

Don't forget that the ConFEDERAcy revived the idea of very sovereign states. The Confederate States were sovereign indeed. They were so sovereign that the confederated states didn't cooperate all that much in fighting the war, which effort was seriously hampered by their rivalry and independent-mindedness.

The COTUS got it about right, but is now being overthrown by rampant Federalism.

Unfortunately, the concept of states' rights has now got a very bad name because basically the Confederacy conflated states' rights with slavery. Too damn bad! States' Rights is now a code name for anti-Negro discrimination! So is "Secession."

So, the Left uses the concept of States' Rights as a weapon. The concept needs to be re-introduced. If the Republican governors would GOTA and conference, maybe progress toward re-establishing that balance could be re-established.

Our, OUR I say, representatives can cut the federal government down to size by simply refusing to pay for it. Their failure to promulgate a budget is a failure ... an anti-constitutional failure.

57 posted on 07/11/2013 7:49:26 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk ("Obama" The Movie. Introducing Reggie Love as "Monica.")
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To: Hostage
1. An amendment to repeal the 16th Amendment.

Tax Reform Amendment
Section I
No tax, federal or state, shall ever be withheld from the wage of any citizen of either.

Section II
No property shall be seized for failure to pay taxes until after conviction in a jury trial; the right of the jury to nullify (and thereby forgive) this debt shall never be questioned or denied.

Section III
The second amendment is hereby recognized as restricting the power of taxation, both federal and state, therefore no tax (or fine) shall be laid upon munitions or the sale thereof. The seventh amendment is also recognized, and nothing herein shall restrict the right of a citizen to seek civil redress.

Section IV
No income tax levied by the federal government, the several States, or any subdivision of either shall ever exceed 10%.

Section V
No income tax levied by the federal government, the several States, or any subdivision of either shall ever apply varying rates to those in their jurisdiction.

Section VI
No ex post facto tax or fee shall be valid; No tax or fee shall ever be applied retroactively; any and all laws imposing taxes/fees which have violated prior portion of this section are also invalid. The congress may not delegate the creation of any tax or fine in any way.

Section VII
No federal employee, representative, senator, judge, justice or agent shall ever be exempt from any tax or fee because of their position and all laws making any such exemption are invalid.

2. An amendment to repeal the 17th Amendment OR a new amendment to allow state legislatures to recall their wayward US Senators would boost the 10th Amendment and bind US Senators to state interests.

Senate Reform Amendment
Section I
The seventeenth amendment is hereby repealed.

Section II
The several states may provide by law the means by which a senator may be removed or replaced.

3. An amendment to preserve the US dollar and to enact a process of governing its value.

Fiscal Responsibility Amendment
Section I
The power of Congress to regulate the value of the dollar is hereby repealed.

Section II
The value of the Dollar shall be one fifteen-hundredth avoirdupois ounce of gold with impurities not exceeding one part per thousand.

Section III
To guard against Congress using its authority over weights and measures to bypass Section I, the weight in Section II is approximately 28.3495 grams (SI).

Section IV
The Secretary of the Treasury shall annually report the gold physically in its possession; this report shall be publicly available.

Section V
The power of the Congress to assume debt is hereby restricted: the congress shall assume no debt that shall cause the total obligations of the United States to exceed one hundred ten percent of the amount reported by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Section VI
Any government agent, officer, judge, justice, employee, representative, or congressman causing gold to be confiscated from a private citizen shall be tried for theft and upon convection shall:
  1. be removed from office (and fired, if an employee),
  2. forfeit all pension and retirement benefits,
  3. pay all legal costs, and
  4. restore to the bereaved twice the amount in controversy
Section VII
The federal government shall assume no obligation lacking funding, neither shall it lay such obligation on the several States, any subdivision thereof, or any place under the jurisdiction of the United States.

4. A social amendment that prohibits the federal government from interfering in any religious belief that was prevalent at the time of the founding. New groups would not be able to circumvent or evade by defining themselves to be a religion. New proposed religions would be required to have a lead time before they were officially recognized by the US government by vote of 2/3s of both chambers of Congress. A marriage provision defining it to be between one man and one woman would fit in here.

That's a bad idea. Here's why: by placing marriage into the constitution you are acknowledging the authority of the law (legal system) over it; therefore, even if it wins you have sown seeds for marriage to be redefined legalistically. (We are even seeing that this can be used to strip many legal rights from the people and the states: look at how the USSC denied that the CA supreme court could certify standing.)

5. An amendment to limit abuses of the commerce clause as Constitutional law professor Randy Barnett wrote about so well in the WSJ in 2011.

Commerce Clause Amendment
Section I
The federal government shall directly subsidize no product or industry whatsoever, saving that of promoting the Progress of Science and useful Arts.

Section II
The federal government shall never prescribe nor proscribe what the Several States teach. Neither the federal government nor the several states shall ever deny the right parents to teach and instruct their children as they see fit.

Section III
The congress may impose tariffs, excise taxes, and customs duties on anything imported or exported, provided that they are applied uniformly and in no manner restrict, subvert, or circumvent the second amendment.

How's that? — I admit the last one was the most unpolished [I'm not an economist], but overall I think they're good showings.

74 posted on 07/12/2013 7:01:26 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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