Commentary:
I fully agree with the author and I've previous on these boards claimed that term limits are necessary for both Houses of Congress, or at the least place a cap on the age a person can serve in Congress.
Here's hoping that Trump can throw the spear into the heart of this matter and get the ball rolling for term limits in Congress.
Term limits is nothing more than a head fake.
I am convinced that those who promote term limits fall within one of two categories:
They know fully well that term limits would do nothing to encourage Congress to act fiscally responsible or end deficit spending, and even if term limits is adopted it will keep the current swamp creatures reckless spending and borrowing alive.
or
They simply mean well and have not realized what the root cause is which actually allows and encourages Congress's reckless spending and borrowing.
That root cause is, there is no
structural mechanism into our constitution or ordinary legislation which encourages each State’s Congressional Delegation to adopt sound fiscal policies and helps to end reckless spending and borrowing, or actually requires Congress to extinguish an annual deficiency from revenue raised during the course of a fiscal year from imposts, duties and excise taxes, and do so in a timely manner?
Congress has proven it is incapable or unwilling to act fiscally responsible, has plundered the U.S. Treasury of untold $Trillions during the past thirty years or so, which find their way into the pocket of political campaign donors, or simply fattens the fortunes of Washington’s inner circle friends, here and abroad, and has gone far beyond spending for the common defense and general welfares’ specified list of particulars found beneath Article 1, Section 8.
And that is exactly why we need to add
a structural mechanism into our rule of law system, which not only encourages each State’s Congressional Delegation to adopt sound fiscal policies and help to end reckless spending and borrowing but actually requires Congress to extinguish an annual deficiency from revenue raised during the course of a fiscal year from imposts, duties and excise taxes.
One such proposal is, the Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment, or similar type legislation:
Fair Share Balanced Budget Amendment
“SECTION 1.
The Sixteenth Amendment is hereby repealed and Congress is henceforth forbidden to lay any tax or burden calculated from profits, gains, sales, interest, salaries, wages, tips, inheritances or any other lawfully realized money.
NOTE: these words would return us to our Constitution’s original tax plan as our Founders’ intended it to operate! They would also end the experiment with allowing Congress to lay and collect taxes calculated from lawfully earned "incomes" which now oppresses America‘s economic engine and robs the bread which working people have earned when selling the property each has in their own labor, not to mention the amendment would end federal taxation being used as a political weapon to harass and attack political opponents!
"SECTION 2.
Congress ought not raise money by borrowing, but when the money arising from imposts duties and excise taxes are insufficient to meet the public exigencies, and Congress has raised money by borrowing during the course of a fiscal year, Congress shall then lay a direct tax at the beginning of the next fiscal year for an amount sufficient to extinguish the preceding fiscal year's deficit, and apply the revenue so raised to extinguishing said deficit."
NOTE: Congress is to raise its primary revenue from imposts and duties, [taxes at our water’s edge], and may also lay miscellaneous internal excise taxes on specifically chosen articles of consumption [preferably articles of luxury]. But if Congress borrows and spends more than is brought in from imposts, duties and miscellaneous excise taxes during the course of a fiscal year, then, and only then, is the direct apportioned tax to be laid in order to balance the budget on an annual basis.
"SECTION 3.
When Congress is required to lay a direct tax in accordance with Section 1 of this Article, the Secretary of the United States Treasury shall, in a timely manner, calculate each State's apportioned share of the total sum being raised by the agreed upon apportionment formula found in our Constitution, and then provide the various State Congressional Delegations with a Bill notifying their State’s Executive and Legislature of its share of the total tax being collected as done on July 14th, 1798 LINK scroll to page 62, and a final date by which said tax shall be paid into the United States Treasury."
NOTE: our founder’s fair share formula to extinguish an annual deficit would be:
States’ population
---------------------------- X SUM TO BE RAISED = STATE’S FAIR SHARE OF DIRECT TAX
Total U.S. Population
The above formula, as intended by our founding fathers, is to ensure that each state’s share towards extinguishing an annual deficit is proportionately equal to its representation in Congress, i.e., representation with a proportional financial obligation! And if the tax is laid directly upon the people by Congress, then every taxpayer across the United States would pay the exact same amount!
Note also that each State’s number or Representatives, under our Constitution is likewise determined by the rule of apportionment:
State`s Pop.
------------------- X House size (435) = State`s No. of Representatives
U.S. Pop.
"SECTION 4.
Each State shall be free to assume and pay its quota of the direct tax into the United States Treasury by a final date set by Congress, but if any State shall refuse or neglect to pay its quota, then Congress shall send forth its officers to assess and levy such State's proportion against the real property within the State with interest thereon at the rate of ((?)) per cent per annum, and against the individual owners of the taxable property. Provision shall be made for a 15% discount for those States paying their share by ((?))of the fiscal year in which the tax is laid, and a 10% discount for States paying by the final date set by Congress, such discount being to defray the States' cost of collection."
NOTE: This section respects the Tenth Amendment and allows each state to raise its share in its own chosen way in a time period set by Congress, but also allows the federal government to enter a state and collect the tax if a state is delinquent in meeting its obligation.
"SECTION 5.
This Amendment to the Constitution, when ratified by the required number of States, shall take effect no later than (?) years after the required number of States have ratified it.
JWK
"In matters of power let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. ... Thomas Jefferson’s Fair Copy of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798
