Proposed Constitutional Amendments

I recently tweeted three proposed Constitutional amendments on my Twitter page and I’d like to flesh out my reasons for doing so here (where I’m not bound by the 140 character limit).

Here are the amendments:

1. No public funds shall be used to subsidize, promote or foster any private enterprise or branch of industry.
2. No individual, unless employed by the federal government, shall receive public funds.
3. Any state passing a law declaring its intention to secede from the union shall be allowed to freely do so.

So let’s take them one at a time.

No public funds shall be used to subsidize, promote or foster any private enterprise or branch of industry.

This is pretty self-explanatory – this ends corporate welfare.  If enacted it would stop our politicians from rewarding their corporate sponsors.  It would also make this country a level playing field for businesses, because the government would no longer be able to pick winners and losers – the market (that’s us!) would do that!  Think about it, had this been the law of the land in 2008, the massive 700 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street would have been illegal. 

No individual, unless employed by the federal government, shall receive public funds.

This is similar to #1 only it is aimed at individuals.  This would make it illegal for the government to take money from one person and give it to another.  Now, before everyone gets all up in arms about the poor and needy, let me just point out that there is a way for the government to support the poor and needy – it would have to hire them!  That’s right – instead of giving people money because they are poor, the government would have to give them a job.  No more “money for nothing”!

Any state passing a law declaring its intention to secede from the union shall be allowed to freely do so.

OK, this is probably the most controversial one – if only because we’ve been conditioned to equate “secession” with “slavery” in this country.  This has nothing to do with slavery however; it is all about checks and balances.   The Articles of Confederation – the law of the land before the Constitution – created a government that was essentially a loose confederation of sovereign states.  Because of this, many of the framers of the Constitution were very concerned that a new federal government would eventually engulf and obliterate the states.  They spent hours debating ways to create branches of government that would be independent of one another and, if need be, oppose one another.  The idea was to combat tyranny – which would certainly creep in if one branch of government got too powerful or if two branches could collude together with no way for another to oppose them.  Well, the ability for a state to secede from the union is a check on federal power.  This is nothing new, there was talk of secession almost from the beginning, but there are those in power now who would insist (as Lincoln did) that no state has the right to secede and that all measures – including war – can be used to stop that from happening.  That, friends, is tyranny!  This union of states – if not voluntary – is coerced.  This amendment would end that once and for all.