We live in uncertain times.
In my own business, one of the problems I find large companies often have involves a failure to follow their own procedures. U.S. regulations and international quality standards require that practices be documented; that is, a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will be published for each facet of quality operations. A large part of my business is to help companies develop those procedures and to ensure they follow them in accordance with regulations and standards; and, yes, as a minarchist libertarian, the irony of that is not lost on me.
Too many companies write boiler-plate SOPs and then don’t follow them.
When a private company does this, they have the option to reverse course. But the United States has a governing SOP, too; it’s called the Constitution, and like these companies, the Imperial government has been ignoring that SOP for a long time now.
Did I say Imperial? I meant Federal. Of course, these days it’s hard to tell the difference.
So how, then, may the United States reverse course? How can we return to a national government that stays within the boundaries of the Constitution? A government that guarantees the blessings of liberty, to equal treatment under the law, for the people to be secure in their rights, their liberty and their property?
There are a few steps we could take to that end.
- Eliminate agencies not authorized by the Constitution.
These are legion. We need not name them all, but there are some egregious cases of agencies that the Federal government now operates that not only are not allowed by the Constitution but are in fact expressly prohibited by the Tenth Amendment. Those include, but are not limited to, Education, Commerce, Energy, the EPA, not to mention a host of smaller operations. Defund them all. Their employees can go find honest work.
- Require a balanced budget.
This would require a Constitutional amendment. It won’t be the last. In fact the remaining items on this list will all require amendments. This would be a new one:
Congress may not propose a budget in the amount exceeding the previous year’s tax receipts, except in the event of a war against another nation, so declared by Congress. The sole exception, worded this way, prevents Congress from declaring, for example, a “war on poverty” and thus justifying endless deficit spending.
Which brings us to:
- Rework the tax code.
Repeal the 16th Amendment. I’d prefer to see a consumption tax, at the retail level (not a value-added tax). But I’d settle for a flat tax, apportioned among the states as the Constitution requires in Article 1, Section 2: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers… (The remainder of this section was rendered moot by the 13th and 14th Amendments.) The tax form would be simplicity itself, with one question: “How much money did you receive from all sources in (previous year). Send in ten percent.” Everybody pays. Nobody skates. No free rides.
- Return the Senate to represent the States.
Repeal the 17th Amendment. This would return the election of Senators to the state legislatures, as described in Section 3: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. This would return the Senate to its proper role: Representing the interests not of individual voters, but of the several States. This was the Senate’s original purpose; this is why there are two Senators from each state, regardless of population. Wyoming has the same representation in the Senate as California, and that’s as it should be.
- End career politics.
This would require a new amendment. Given my druthers, this new amendment would establish limits on Federal service as follows:
The President is limited to one six-year term. Senators are limited to one six-year term. Representatives are limited to three two-year terms. Following the allowed terms, all such persons are forever prohibited from holding elected, appointed or hired office at the Federal level, nor shall any such persons receive any benefits or pensions once leaving office, except in the event of a service-connected permanent injury or disability.
If I were Dictator-for-a-Day, I’d take the Federal government back to what it was about 1790: An effective, minimally intrusive republic. These five steps would, well, be a good start.
I’m all too aware that I’m asking the impossible. Under the current system, the people who would have to do this, politicians, will never surrender the illegitimate power they wield.
Do I sound pessimistic? If I do, it’s history that makes me so. History shows us very eloquently that it is the nature of government to grow ever larger and more intrusive.
We are not the first republic to face a dire crisis in governance. Rome herself, first a kingdom, then a republic, sank into rule by a narrow aristocracy; a ruling class, as it were. Sound familiar? One man acted, by bringing a single battle-hardened legion across the Alps to seize control. The scribe Marcus Lucanus recorded the moment thusly:
“What seek ye, men of Rome? and whither hence
Bear ye my standards? If by right ye come,
My citizens, stay here; these are the bounds;
No further dare.” But Caesar’s hair was stiff
With horror as he gazed, and ghastly dread
Restrained his footsteps on the further bank.
Then spake he, “Thunderer, who from the rock
Tarpeian seest the wall of mighty Rome;
Gods of my race who watched o’er Troy of old;
Thou Jove of Alba’s height, and Vestal fires,
And rites of Romulus erst rapt to heaven,
And God-like Rome; be friendly to my quest.
Not with offence or hostile arms I come,
Thy Caesar, conqueror by land and sea,
Thy soldier here and wheresoe’er thou wilt:
No other’s; his, his only be the guilt
Whose acts make me thy foe.’ He gives the word
And bids his standards cross the swollen stream.
But Julius Caesar’s action did not save the Roman Republic. The result was the destruction of the Republic, and the beginning of five hundred years of rule by Emperors.
We cannot afford such an ending. Not now. Not ever
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