Dear Redfish: If secession happens it can be done civilly in two ways, financially and politically:
1. divide the budget by party, where Republicans can pay back military expenses the Democrats veto and fund what that membership believes is the role of federal govt;
and likewise, let Democrats fund and structure the health care and other social programs that party and its members believe in, without imposing on any dissenting parties. The two parties can lend and borrow between each other, and let taxpayers choose where to invest their federal taxes. I would recommend capping income tax at 10% eventually, but 15-20% for now until the budget is balanced. And give taxpayers and states the choice to LEND to federal govt anything above that amount provided it goes into what is agreed to pay for and under what terms, similar to how the investors in the Federal Reserve get interest from lending to govt.
In short taxpayers should be REWARDED for investing in solutions to govt problems, not punished for the lack of corrections.
2. assess debts and damages owed to taxpayers for corporate or other criminal abuses of govt resources, issue restitution notes against those amounts to go into whatever those funds should have paid for (such as medicare fraud or Vet fraud, etc.) and use the notes to invest in and create jobs, service and educational programs around the corrections. Hold the wrongdoers responsible for paying back the amounts owed; and in the meantime, whatever public property or programs are funded with the restitution money will be held as "collateral" against the debts. So either the govt is responsible for collecting back from the wrongdoers who misspent the money (creating jobs for accountants and lawyers to negotiate and collect on these settlements), OR the people and private investors who aren't responsible for the wrongful abuses have the option of BUYING OUT the debts and OWNING the collateral. so either the govt has to pay back taxpayers and fix these problems charged to us, or if the private sector can do a better job, then those programs and resources will be under that jurisdiction. This will either correct or shrink govt to levels of direct accountability, and localize representation and direct participation in solutions.
NOTE: for examples of issuing local currency contact PAUL GLOVER with Ithaca HOURS
Ithaca Hours - Local Currency - Ithaca, New York OR
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These systems are based on labor-backed currency. The system of restitution I am proposing, modeled after the Federal Reserve, would issue notes against debts and damages owed to taxpayers provided there is collateral on the loans and an agreement to pay back the loans being invested in correction per project or issue, and thus creating jobs and education around each. The district where I live offers a prime example of how such a model solution can be tested out, by building a campus for Vet jobs and business training, housing and health care while restoring a national historic site destroyed by govt abuse at taxpayer expense:
Freedmen's Town Historic Churches and Vet Housing
(Another site is the Headwaters Forest in CA, destroyed by corporate takeover that cost taxpayers an estimated $1.6 billion. By issuing notes against the total cost of restoring the forest, river ecosystem and endangered species, and holding the forest as collateral on this debt to taxpayers, California could fund its own sustainable economy creating jobs and educational internships
around this one environmental project alone! Its value far exceeds the corporate welfare and junk bonds bailed out by taxpayers.)