New amendments to the constitution

[natedogg]

Of course, we have one proposal on the table from GWB regarding gay marriage which is obviously asinine.

I'd like to offer my two suggestions for what would make good amendments to the constitution.

1. No person shall be coerced into any action or behaviour for the purpose of that individual's own good.

2. No person shall be restricted from any private behaviour or action that causes no physical or economic harm to others.

Those would get my vote.

natedogg

[andyfox]

My humble suggestions:

1) No salad bar shall limit the number of revisits by any paying customer. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

2) No movie theater shall prohibit any paying customer from bringing outside food into the movie. Conress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

It's all about the food.

[Zeno]

1. The right of the people to openly bare arms and to exercise themselves in the use thereof shall not be infringed.

2. No persons shall be charged with sedition who advocates the reform of government by peaceful means, or the orderly substitution of another form of government for it.

3. Voting rights in all elections is restricted to citizens 25 to 75 years of age. Appropriate age set as of January 1 of election year.

4. All elections to public office shall be decided by majority popular vote.

5. The Pope is declared a criminal of all humanity and shall be summarily executed by hanging if found on, or passing though, any Untied States territory, property, or possession, including all land, sea, or air.

6. A constitutional convention shall be held every 25 years; that shall start upon the ratification of this amendment.

7. Senators shall be appointed to Congress by the respective state legislatures.

8. The Power of Congress to tax individual personal income is hereby revoked in perpetuity.

9. No minister of any gospel shall be elgible for public office.


Congress shall have the power to enforce these provisions with appropriate legislation.


A few of the above proposals were inspired by H.L. Mencken's 'A New Constitution for Maryland'.

-Zeno

[craig r]

3. Voting rights in all elections is restricted to citizens 25 to 75 years of age. Appropriate age set as of January 1 of election year.

Why 25?

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Those would get my vote.

You don't get to vote on amendments to the Constitution. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

#4 & #7 are contradictory

[GWB]

[ QUOTE ]
#4 & #7 are contradictory

[/ QUOTE ]

Not so, Senators would no longer be elected officials.

Here's one to consider:

Only people who pay income taxes are eligible to vote for those elected officials who have the power to appropriate the spending of tax money.

[CCass]

[ QUOTE ]
Here's one to consider:

Only people who pay income taxes are eligible to vote for those elected officials who have the power to appropriate the spending of tax money.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now that would get my vote!!!

[MMMMMM]

The fairest tax of all would be a national sales tax, with exemptions for necessities up to a certain threshold. It could replace the income tax (and the associated bureaucracy), and streamline the economy in the process.
An additional benefit would be that nobody could illegally evade paying this tax.

www.fairtax.org (http://www.fairtax.org)

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[Phat Mack]

1. The right of the people to openly bare arms and to exercise themselves in the use thereof shall not be infringed.

Aren't bare arms considered tacky before Memorial Day? Do we really want to permit this? Wouldn't redacting the right to exercise our arms imply that we don't have a right to exercise our legs? How about our cardiovascular systems?

Signed,

Wondering in Texas

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
Only people who pay income taxes are eligible to vote for those elected officials who have the power to appropriate the spending of tax money.

[/ QUOTE ]

You could have the voting weighted by the amount of taxes you pay. Then you could vote for officials who would raise or lower your taxes, and that would then raise or lower your voting power next time around. More money = more power. Oh wait, how is that different from what we have now? /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[jcx]

We don't need any new amendments. However, several need to be repealed:

14. All people born in the US are automatically citizens. This was put in place so freed slaves would not be denied citizenship and is no longer relevant. It is now being abused by many illegal immigrants in order to gain citizenship for their children and thus access to taxpayer funded benefits (There is a huge midwife industry in the border states catering to illegals crossing solely to give birth).

16. Income tax. It is corrupt and should be repealed (There is some question as to whether it was properly ratified to begin with).

17. Senators elected rather than appointed by state legislature. This was a giant blow to states rights and needs to be eliminated.

19. Women's suffrage. Many of our current problems can be traced to giving women the right to vote. Women as a general rule will vote for security before freedom. It's no surprise the welfare state was born and metastasized since women received the vote.

Repeal these amendments and we will be on our way to having our country back.

[elwoodblues]

Great idea because if you don't pay income tax you should have no voice in, for example, deciding whether to elect someone who supports gay marriage. If you don't pay income tax, you have no right to vote for or against a Senator who proposes a law that says "All non-income tax paying individuals shall be drafted into the armed services."

I don't know how much of your proposal is in jest (my father in law believes only property owners should have the right to vote), but I can see the campaign slogans now "GWB looking to the future and seeing the past."

[nicky g]

Next you'll be saying women should have the vote.

[Ragnar]

[ QUOTE ]
Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade

[/ QUOTE ]
Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged

Ragnar

[sfer]

Is this a joke? Because it's really not funny.

[sfer]

Escalator traffic. Stand to the right, walk to the left. Violators will be forced to have dinner with Pauly Shore.

[daryn]

i was with him until the women's suffrage part

[CORed]

I would propose an alternataive. Only those who have paid more in taxes (all taxes) than they have received in benefits from the government would be eligible to vote.

[HDPM]

"....nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. This section does not apply to people putting ketchup on hot dogs or mayonaise on corned beef or pastrami sandwiches, while in the act of ordering, possessing, eating, placing aforesaid condiments on the item in question, or conspiring to do the same. Said individuals lose all civil rights during any such act and are OUTLAW. Congress nor the several States shall pass any law abridging the fundamental right to stop any such OUTLAW by any means."



hows that? /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[bugstud]

[ QUOTE ]
The fairest tax of all would be a national sales tax, with exemptions for necessities up to a certain threshold. It could replace the income tax (and the associated bureaucracy), and streamline the economy in the process.
An additional benefit would be that nobody could illegally evade paying this tax.

www.fairtax.org (http://www.fairtax.org)
-----------------------------------------------------------

[/ QUOTE ]

Why would people stop evading taxes? Just offer people 10% to sell it to you without going through the register.

[Phat Mack]

or mayonaise on corned beef or pastrami sandwiches

I am afraid that in your haste to post this, you omitted hamburgers.

[bugstud]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The fairest tax of all would be a national sales tax, with exemptions for necessities up to a certain threshold. It could replace the income tax (and the associated bureaucracy), and streamline the economy in the process.
An additional benefit would be that nobody could illegally evade paying this tax.

www.fairtax.org (http://www.fairtax.org)
-----------------------------------------------------------

[/ QUOTE ]

Why would people stop evading taxes? Just offer people 10% to sell it to you without going through the register.

[/ QUOTE ]


Other fun things: retail theft is now a federal offense, can toss tax evasion as another crime to be charged with in that instance. Really, your IRS division now has to monitor retail outlets and the like to ensure they follow procedure. Not as neat and clean as you'd like, right?

[MMMMMM]

Why don't you read the specifics on the website before you commence with (erroneous) speculations.

[jcx]

[ QUOTE ]
Is this a joke? Because it's really not funny.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm serious. Women voting has been an absolute disaster.

[andyfox]

I like it. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Amen to that.

[Chris Alger]

Unfortunately, this is no better than saying that all statutes must have social benefits. The attitude of the federal courts is generally one of "if Congress passed the law, society presumptively benefitted."

How about this: "Congress shall make no law restricting the conduct of individuals without a prior evidentiary determination that the primary purpose of such law is to protect society from an identified harm."

Even under this, I can see drug laws, seatbelt laws, antigambling statutes all passing muster. More repressive legislation against flag-burning, subversive association, and hate speech would be easy to pass.

Libertarians always have a problem with defining the boundries between individuals and everyone else. Rather than putting this abstrtaction into law, better to take on particular topics one at a time pragmatically.

[bugstud]

I did, and as you said there will always be tax evasion. So, how often do you think people will try to evade a 23% sales tax?

[MMMMMM]

How could you have read it, when you said that the IRS would have enlarged powers? The "learn more" link on the site leads to information that says the abolishment of the IRS would take place and collections would be made by local governments. Try the FAQ, or this from the linked CATO Institure Policy Analysis:

(excerpt)"The ideal NST plan would include the following features:

A 15 percent sales tax on the final purchase of goods and services at the retail level. The NST would be similar to state sales taxes. The rate should decline in future years to 10 to 12 percent as economic growth allows more revenue to be raised at a lower rate and government downsizing continues.

A universal rebate for every household, exempting all consumption up to the poverty level. That would mean that the first $18,588 of consumption each year for a family of four would be tax-free. The rebate could be provided as a refundable credit against the payroll tax.

Reimbursement to states and retailers of the cost of collecting the national sales tax.

Abolition of the Internal Revenue Service. The states should bear the primary responsibility for administering the national sales tax. The IRS would be abolished, and a much smaller, less intrusive federal excise tax bureau would collect trust fund excise taxes such as the gasoline tax. The Social Security Administration would enforce and collect payroll taxes." (end excerpt)

http://cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-272.html

As for your question about sales tax cheating, how much takes place now? How much federal gas taxes get cheated on? Whatever the figures, I bet it is les sthan unreported income. Also the complexity of the current tax code has necessitated an entire piggy-back industry of extra accountanting, etc. to find the gazillion looholes.

Instead, Simplify.