It's Time For Government Reform

If the health care reform debate taught me nothing else, it is that our federal system of government is broken, broken, broken.

It cannot be said that a house of government that "passes" laws by not voting on them, as the House of Representatives did, is at all a functional house of government.

It cannot be said that a house of government intended to represent the States, as the Senate is supposed to, can validly produce a law so antagonistic to the States as the reform bills unless it is broken, broken, broken.

I defy any Representative or Senator --Republican or Democrat or Independent-- to claim that they read and understood the actual legislative language of the reform bills before the bills were voted on. That is not responsible government by any sane measure.

Health reform was a political football game, and the American people lost. They lost because Democrats didn't know what they were voting for; and because Republicans and the few Democrat holdouts didn't know what they were voting against. I say again: that is not responsible government by any sane measure.

I suggest, therefore, that the next "reform" initiative be to put the federal government back in its place: in Washington, at work, on issues of national importance. Not in my backyard; not in my doctor's office; not in my kids' schools; not in my bed.

It's also time to start putting political parties where they belong: on the street, organizing, getting out votes, promoting ideas, holding discussions, publishing materials. Political parties have a valid role in the marketplace of ideas. Where they do not belong, however, is behind the curtain of the voting booth and inside the offices of our public representatives. We can begin the challenging road of restoring the independence of our elected officials by insulating the process by which they are elected from undue party influence. And that begins in the voting booth.

The following amendment espouses these ideals: a limited federal government; transparency in federal legislation; genuniness of the federal legislative "act"; the sanctity of the act of casting a vote.

I firmly believe that we are at a momentous time in our country's history. We can continue down a path that will eventually lead to obliteration of the individual states, or we can reaffirm that the federal government is intended to govern among the states, not within them. We can continue down a path that serves obscurity in our fundamental acts of democracy like voting and passing laws; or we can restore them to clarity. We can turn away in disgust when our legislative body devolves into a ridiculous posse of clowns, or we can demand more respect ---indeed reverence--- in their use of the power we have delegated to them by our vote.

We can say, now, that we have strayed too far from the freedom our founders intended for us; or we can succumb to the notion that others decide for us how much of our liberty we wish to trade for common welfare.

The choice is ours.


AMENDMENT XXVII

Section 1. [1] The seventeenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

[2] If the Legislature of a State shall fail to choose a Senator before the first annual meeting of the Congress, the Executive Authority of the State shall issue a Writ of Election to fill such vacancy.

Section 2. The authority of the Congress to regulate commerce among the several States shall extend only to affirmative acts of commerce among parties located in diverse States, or the consummation of which acts will occur in diverse States.

Section 3. [1] Every Bill creating new law or amending existing law when introduced in either the House of Representatives or the Senate, and every amendment thereafter made to such Bill, must have all new matter underscored, and all matter eliminated by amendment from existing law must appear in its proper place enclosed in brackets.

[2] No amendment shall be allowed to any Bill which is not germane to the original object or purpose thereof.

[3] No Bill shall be passed by the House of Representatives or the Senate other than upon an affirmative vote upon the Bill, and recorded in its Journal of Proceedings.

Section 4. The purpose of an election being to choose a suitable individual to fill an office, in any election held for the office of President of the United States, or the office of Vice President, or of Representative or Senator, any ballot in such election shall indicate only the office subject to election and the name of each candidate therefor, and all other information concerning the candidates, including his or her party affiliations, if any, shall be stricken from the ballot.