Amendment to Eliminate Graft & Corruption Revision of Election Rules: All elections for federal office will use the Borda Count method to tabulate election winners. Each voter ranks all of the candidates from top to bottom. If there are, say, five candidates, then a voter's top-ranked candidate gets 5 points, his second-ranked candidate gets 4, and so on. Finally, the points from all the voters are added up to determine the winner. This method allows electors to come to a concensus in selection of the best cannidate for office. Campaign Finance: In order to qualify for any federal election, a canidate must submit a nonimination petition to the Treasury Secretary with the signatures of at least ten percent of the citizens to be represented by the petitioner if elected. Petitioners, signatories, must be citizens of the United States and a citizen can only sign one petition for a specific canidate per office per election. All elections for Federal Office will be fully financed by the Federal government. Each election, congress shall fund each canidate for the Senate and House of Representataives at rate of ten dollars per person represented by the position. Congress shall fund each presidential canidate 20 million dollars per election. These amounts may be inflation adusted annually based on the Consumer Price Index with a majority vote of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Any unused campaign funds will be returned to the treasury after conclusion of the election. Network News Organizations are required to provide at least 10 hours of free debate/exposure time to all registered canidates for office each federal election cycle. Debate questions must be selected from citizen input and represent the issues at hand. Questions must be kept secret from the canidates prior to debates, and canidates nor their representatives will have no hand in determining the debate formats or the questions to be asked of them. Sixty days prior to each election, the federal government will distribute campaign packages to the electors. These packages will consist of information about each canidate, provided by each canidate for public office. Each canidate for public office will be given two pages to represent their positions and credidentials to the electors. Swift Boat Provision/Fear Mongering/Dirty Tricks Provision: Any funds spent to degrade a canidate for public office with false or misleading information will be taxed at fifty percent to the party making such donations.. Any such organizations or individuals receiving such funds will need to fully disclose their funding sources 360 days prior to running any mass communications. It is important to fully disclosed sources and amounts of these funds before and each time these communications are presented to voters, funding sources, names and amounts, must also be disclosed to the voters and included in each communication to the voters. And the voters must have reasonable time to read and understand the disclosure. In addition, organizations or individuals collecting funds for this purpose must pay a tax on donated funds received equilivant to seventy five percent of the amount donated. Laundering these donations through other parties or organization is expressly forbidden and is punishable by imprisoment of not less than 100 years. An agency or individual will be found to degrade a canidate for public office with false or misleading information when the advertisments paid for or sponsored by the individual or organization invoke fear of a candiate or an issue as measured by a statistically valid random sampling of voters and by failing to disclose all relevant facts or by including facts in their arguments which are not true and can be proven as untrue or cannot be proven to be truthful in a trial by jury of 11 unbiased citizens. Examples of Dirty Tricks Advertising: • Swift Boat Veterans for Truth • Medicare Prescription Drug Program Exceutive Privilage: Congress shall have all rights to investigate the executive and judical branches of government. No branch of government shall have the right of privilage, including executive privilage, that shall prevent or block such branch or agency from disclosing material requested by the Congress or a committee theirof. Pardons: The president cannot pardon a member of his/her staff or administration. Neither can a president commute a legally imposed sentence for a member of his staff or administration. Pardons for offencences arising out of service in the executive branch of government can only be pardoned with a 2/3 affirmative vote of the House of Representatives and a 2/3 afirmative vote of the Senate. Gifts: No member of congress, president, or member of the judicial system may accept anything of value from any special interest group under any circumstance. Under no circumstances will any federal employee be permitted to accept compensation for travel, education, or any funding or anything of value from a party advocating for legislation. Neither can a member of congress, president, Judge of the Supreme Court accept travel on private conveyances and pay commercial rates. If private coveyances are used, elected officials must pay full cost of their for their travel and for the travel of any family members. If a private conveyance is used the government employee or canidate for office must pay the prorated cost of the conveyance…that part of the expense that can be reasonably attributed to the usage by the federal employee or canidate. Further, family members (spouses, brothers, sisters, children and parents) and members of congress, president or members of the Supreme Court and there direct staffs are NOT allowed to work and receive compensation as an advocate (Lobbist) for special interests having business before the congress for a period of ten years following the last day said member served as a member of Congress, president, or Supreme Court Judge.
There you go... you started a new thread and put it where it belongs. I have severa ammendments I've written. I'll post them here when I sober up. ~String
"Except during times of war or national emergency, the United States and the Several States shall keep and maintain a balanced a debt free budget. "All bills concerning the levying of tarifs or taxes and distribution of funds shall originate in the House of Representatives and shall not be approved but upon two thirds of both houses and shall be passed on to the President for his approval. Should the President sign the bill, it shall become law. Should the president veto the bill, it shall become null and voide. Congress may override the President's veto upon the approval of 90% of both houses "No tax levied or funds distributed shall be for a period greater than four years, after which time they shall become null and void. "All bills for the levying of taxes and distrubtion of funds shall be independent of all other bills and may concern only one specific tax, levy or distribution. Neither shall any other attachment be added to these bills concerning any other matter under the law."
I think all of these specific amendments could be replaced by a single, more general amendment: The People and their Institutions are obliged to conduct themselves in all civic and public matters in Good Faith. We can tinker with the wording a bit, but a lack of good faith is the basic problem inspiring the proposed amendments I see in posts above.
I agree Tiassa-- but that's too vague and difficult to enforce. I still want my ammendments added. ~String
It's not that I think your four-year period on taxation is a bad idea in and of itself, but rather that I don't think it will change much. Reinstituting the a prior tax structure would become a matter of formality, and the people might actually lose track of changes if the tax device keeps changing every few years. To hear the critics tell it, the income tax code is confusing enough as it is; imagine the schemes our legislators might come up with. Supermajorities can be dangerous, and could create an electoral demand that renders the minority party completely irrelevant. (Imagine what either party could do with a sitting supermajority.) The tax-specific bills is an interesting proposition, and I haven't been able to figure out whether a balanced-budget amendment really is bad for the economy as so many critics claim. However, under a balanced-budget amendment, the people at large are screwed. We might not be able to afford health care for children, or welfare to keep families eating, but we'll damn well be able to afford corporate welfare and other graft bought off by lobbyists. To the other, by your amendment, could a state of emergency be declared in order to finance our crumbling physical infrastructure? ("Whoops! Sorry, I know the bridges are collapsing and the interstates a mess, but it would be bad for the economy to dedicate those funds to infrastructure at this time." Counterpoint: when will it be good for the economy, from politicians' perspective, to tell the corporations to go screw and fend for themselves?) As to the others, listed in Joepistole's topic post, I'll get to them another time. The messy paragraph above is the quick response, and I really should give the whole thing a little more time.
You make some good points. And as for the issues with re-instituting the taxes ever four years, there are several reasons that it WOULD force a re-evaluation of the taxes each time: 1) Congressional changes between them are sure to instill new blood and ideas. 2) Since each tax bill must be proposed independently of all others it would FORCE a re-evaluation. 3) Since each appropriation of funds would also be done independently every four years, the Congress would be forced to re-evaluate who gets what money and how much. Each appropriations bill for each individual issue would consume an individual law. Imagine the difficulty of having to re-issue the entire tax law every four years and then gain a supermajority each time. 4) Forcing a "supermajority" in order to renew a tax EASILY makes it enormously difficult to levy a tax and appropriate said funds unless it's for a very good cause. 5) Giving the president a veto on that majority and forcing it to receive a MEGA majority makes it even more difficult still. Also, the balanced budget amendment is just good common sense. To even posit the idea that we should be funding things without a means to pay for them except by putting them on a national equivalent of a credit card is total insanity. ALSO-- I can add another paragraph to that list that make declaring a "national emergency" not a passive and meaningless thing: Require a 2/3 majority + presidential signature and or a mega-majority of 90% to declare one. ~String
Actually, I want this ammendment. Any Representative or Senator who serves more than 12 years shall be immediately be executed the moment they leave office.
Not. The basic problem is the definition of the authority to compel an oblige. You can't do it. So much for "could".
Yes, the obligation to the people is problematic. Got a solution, or are you one who believes good faith has no place in civil society?
Amend the Constitution to say: No part of this document may be construed to be binding in the case of political inconvenience, national emergency, political emergency, electoral apathy, or in the face of any other sweet-sounding reason. May as well codify what is already true.
It does belong there... it's just so goddamned hard to define in a court of law, which is where it needs to be used. ~String
We do uphold it. It just doesn't contain all the needed verbiage to curtail some of the activities that I see as harmful. Like a balance budget ammendment and making it difficult to declair a state of emergency and making it equally difficult to levy & raise taxes. ~String
string:"We do uphold [the Constitution]." Separation of equal powers? Separation of church and state? Right to privacy? Informed consent of the governed? Accountability of the government? I don't think so. More purty werds will mean nothing unless we are willing to see to it that the Constitution we inherited is respected.
How are the powers NOT separate? Where are there sections of "Informed Consent" and "Accountability of the Government"? ~String
"How are the powers NOT separate?" Separation of Powers means that one Branch may not Constitutionally usurp the authority of another. Respect for the Constitution includes an understanding of this concept, and an unwillingness to accede to such a breach.
"Where are there sections of "Informed Consent" and "Accountability of the Government"?" The purpose of the Constitution is to make government accountable to the governed. I was under the impression you are a US Citizen. How did you miss out on a basic civics education?
I don't mean to pick on you, string. I suspect our Constitutional crises arise largely because most Americans are not raised in an understanding of our own political heritage. One can rise to the top without respect for the Constitution; it may have even become a political advantage in this environment to erode what the Founders dared to dream.
