Kirsten Mortensen's blog

Last month I blogged about a WSJ op-ed by Randy Barnett, in which he called for our states to convene a Constitutional Convention to reign in federal power :-)

Well guess what! He’s drafted a proposed amendment.

I’m ecstatic!

Here’s the first article:

Section 1. Congress shall make no law laying or collecting taxes upon incomes, gifts, or estates, or upon aggregate consumption or expenditures; but Congress shall have power to levy a uniform tax on the sale of goods or services.

Section 2. Any imposition of or increase in a tax, duty, impost or excise shall require the approval of three-fifths of the House of Representatives and three-fifths of the Senate, and shall separately be presented to the president of the United States.

Section 3. This article shall be effective five years from the date of its ratification, at which time the 16th Article of amendment is repealed.

Is that beautiful or what?

And that’s just the beginning! Other articles limit (or rather re-iterate existing limits on) the fed government power to regular intra-state commerce; forbid requiring states to implement programs unless the federal government also pays for them; forbid Congress from enlarging its powers by means of international treaty (BRILLIANT!); and extend the protection of political free speech.

I simply love this — not least of all because it renews my faith that there are intelligent, thoughtful people out there who are taking seriously the drift we’re experiencing from the America our Founding Fathers envisioned.

I mean, think about it. We have a federal government that began to redefine its role in the early 20th century, first by instituting an income tax and then by re-casting itself as a financial helpmate for people in trouble.

And we have a man in the White House who has suggested publicly that an even more radical re-shaping is warranted. (Scroll down at this link or listen to the audio here.

We can’t let this happen without a debate.

We need to look at three broad areas — technology; increased population and the pressures that brings on resources (including clean water, soil, and air); and the consequences of 70 years of a burgeoning federal beauracracy — and ask ourselves if we can apply Constitionally-founded principles to work out the issues arising within those areas.

If not, then we need to stand up and say: the Constitution is dated, it doesn’t work any more, toss it out, nice while it lasted but we need something different today.

But if we do that, it has to be out in the open. It has to be a debate led by people who are thinking past the next election — who are thinking past their own job security — because the decisions we make may well wipe this country off the face of the Earth, at least in terms of who we are and what we stand for. Or stood for . . .

More from Barnett including response to his original piece here.

Randy Barnett, Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown, had an op ed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal that makes my my little libertarian heart sing.

He calls for states to take action against the Federal government’s out-of-control encroachment on our Constitutional liberties.

Best of all, he suggests actual concrete action: a Constitutional convention to repeal the 16th Amendment. That’s the one that established the income tax, btw.

“This single change,” Barnett writes, “would strike at the heart of unlimited federal power and end the costly and intrusive tax code.”

Congress could then replace the income tax with a “uniform” national sales or “excise” tax (as stated in Article I, section 8) that would be paid by everyone residing in the country as they consumed, and would automatically render savings and capital appreciation free of tax.

I am so in favor of this. Count me in.