Repeal the 16th and 17th Amendments

Good day all. Yesterday was the 4^th of July, the day Americans celebrate their independence from the British Empire. The result of our independence was the creation of the freest and most powerful nation in the history of the world.

However, those days are behind us. The United States is no longer the freest nation on Earth. We have a government that no longer represents the people and considers the Constitution to be a relic that can be ignored. How did all this happen? The answer is both simple and complex.

The main cause is what is known as “Progressivism.” The original idea of the Progressive Movement was to improve the lot of the American People. The original progressives were people like Theodore Roosevelt. These people were patriotic people who believed in science and the rights of the individual. Before to long though, the Progressive movement was taken over by people who you would be hard pressed to differentiate from Communists, Fascists, Nazi’s and every other totalitarian group of the 20^th century.

Two of the major changes wrought were the passage of the 16^th and 17^th amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The 16^th Amendment ((Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution)) allowed the Federal Government to institute an Income Tax on the American People. The 17^th Amendment ((Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution)) changed the way members of the United States Senate were chosen.

With the passage of the 16^th Amendment, the Federal government had access to a virtually unlimited amount of money. It also allowed them to create a tax code so arcane that it is impossible for most people to comply with it. The Progressive Elements in the government have also used the code to try and force people to do things that they might not want to do. The upshot is the current scandal with the Internal Revenue Service outright oppressing groups that differed from the Progressive Left.

The 17^th Amendment allowed for the direct election of people to the United States Senate. Prior to this, they were usually selected by their state legislatures. The reasoning for this was simple. The senate represented the States. The House of Representatives was different. The members were elected by popular vote and were meant to represent the people of the United States. In addition, Senators were granted a 6 year term, as opposed to the 4 year term of the President and the 2 year term of a Representative. The idea was a man would be in the Senate for one or two terms and then step down. It was thought that older men would be in the senate for a term, then retire to the farm.

With the passage of the 17^th Amendment, Senators had to suck up to the voters, just like Representatives. At that point, Senators were beholding to the people and not to the members of the legislature or the governor of their states. Since these senators were no longer answerable to their state legislatures, they stopped representing their states and started representing themselves. In other words, they voted more power to the central Federal Government and stripped rights away from the states. They also liked to raid the treasury in order to buy votes for themselves and give themselves special privileges.

With the passage of the 16^th and 17^th amendments, the spending by Washington exploded. They went far beyond the constitutional mandates and started usurping powers not granted to them. In other words, they ignored the 9^th and 10^th amendments. The results? We now live in a nation that is bankrupt with a government no longer answerable to the people.

So, how do we fix this? First, we need to “Starve the beast.” This means repealing the 16^th Amendment and stripping the right of the Federal Government to tax the income of people and businesses. We did just fine without it for 130 years. Since it was ratified in 1913, we have a budget deficit averaging $1 Trillion dollars a year, and a national debt that we will never be able to pay off.

Ending the income tax will have another benefit. The IRS will be superfluous and can be disbanded. All those tax courts, where you are presumed guilty until proven innocent will also be obsolete and can be abolished. With the dead hand of the IRS off businesses throats, the economy would take off. People’s income would skyrocket for the simple reason that the money being stolen from them is now going into their bank accounts.

Will this be a panacea, with rainbows and unicorn farts? Hell no. The income tax would probably be replaced by some sort of national sales tax, but if the morons in D.C. get out of line with it, a black market will appear, much as it has for cigarettes and tobacco in those states with high taxes on smokes. Still, it could be worked out.

Another benefit would be the forcing of the Federal Government to close all these agencies that have been created since 1900. Almost all of them are unconstitutional in any case, and where needed, their powers could be returned to the states where it belongs.

Repealing the 17^th Amendment would all but end the virtual lifetime sinecures of some members of the Senate. No longer would you have liars like John McCain, Orrin Hatch, and Marco Rubio getting into office and using their seats to protect themselves. Since the Senators would have to answer for their behavior to their state legislatures, instead of the big money donors or special interest groups. They would need to talk to their state legislature representatives instead. It would also throw a pretty big monkey wrench into the K Street lobbyists ((K Street, Washington DC)).

Would this fix all the problems? No it wouldn’t, but it would be a start. One of the reasons for the 17^th Amendment was the appearance of corruption by Senators back in the day, and it wasn’t unfounded. Therefore, we would also need to include some form of recall provision. For instance, if, after serving 2 years or more, the legislature is unhappy with one of their senators, they can vote to remove him or her with a 2/3rd’s majority. If the people aren’t happy, then a recall petition can be circulated and if the approved number of valid signatures is submitted, (That number to be determined later), then a full recall election is to be held in 30-60 days. If the senator in question is voted out, or removed by the legislature, he or she will not be able to seek the office of Senator again. This should hold their feet to the fire.

Now amending the constitution is an extremely difficult process and is intentionally so. There are two ways to do it. The first is a bill to amend the constitution is submitted to the the congress. This can be initiated in either house or senate. It needs to pass each house by a two thirds majority and is then sent to the states for ratification. Then 3/4ths of the states need to pass the proposed amendment before it is ratified and accepted into the constitution.

Right now, there is no way in Hell that the Congress of the United States will pass either proposed amendment. It would mean stripping them of their power, and in some cases, their seats as well. If we want this to happen, it will probably need to go through the process of calling for a Constitutional Convention. A convention can be called if 2/3rds of the states request it. Basically, this bypasses congress.

Some people may say that we should not mess with the constitution. They would be wrong. The founders knew that things would change and that this great document might have to be updated to reflect those changes. They also understood that the Federal Government might not want to make those changes, especially if it means stripping power away from them.

As we have seen in the last 12 years, the United States Federal Government has gone completely off the rails. Currently there are at least five separate scandals concerning abuse of power by the Administration and various agencies. People no longer trust the Federal government, they are now beginning to see it as a threat to their rights. If We the People can’t get this fixed through the processes laid out in the Constitution, we may see people deciding to “Use other means” to fix the problems. The last time this happened was a period of time in the 1860’s.

If “Other Means” are used this time, it would be a bloodbath. Personally, I would prefer that we go through the system to fix the system. Therefore, I recommend that you contact your state legislators and ask them to look into organizing a constitutional convention with the goal of repealing the 16^th and 17^th amendments. If it looks like such a convention request will pass, there is a good chance the morons in Washington will submit and pass the amendments themselves. It wouldn’t be the first time they saw the writing on the wall and amended the Constitution.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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