1. As much as I believe in balanced budgets, there are times when the government will need run a deficit, like during a recession or a war. Imagine your life as an adult if you could never borrow money for anything.
2. Term limits are a double edged sword. Yes it forces crooks out of office, but it also forces out experienced legislators who work hard on their constituents behalf. It takes time for elected officials to learn the ropes in Washington, and how to get things done. And about the time that they really know what they're doing, they time limit is up.
What I would rather see than term limits is to subject legislators to the same conflict of interest laws in stock trading that the rest of us live with. Legislators are free to profit from insider information. Lucky them.
3. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Get rid of lobbyists' money and PAC's.
We had publically funded elections in Canada. Each party received something like $2 for every vote they received, but the Conservative Party recently stopped that saying it was a waste of taxpayers' money. The Conservative Party is currently swimming in cash and the Liberals are broke. This may have had something to do with the change in election financing. Now we have US-style financing. Oh joy, oh bliss.
The one area where your Constitution is really deficient is that women are not equal under the law. It is shameful that in this day and age, that the Republican Party fought so hard against the ERA in the 1970's. Women should have equal rights under the law. I don't know why anyone would think otherwise.
The right to bear arms was a HUGE mistake. It's given the US the highest murder rate in the first world and the highest rate of violent crime. Sadly, there are now so many guns in the hands of the general public that even if all guns were banned tomorrow, you will never get rid of them. Bad, idea, very bad idea.
The system of checks and balances only works when there is will to co-operate. That will is gone.
