We Need a 28th Amendment




Most people do not know there was a purposed 28th Amendment. Of course it never passed because it would put the US Congress on the same exact grounds as “We the People”. I think passing this would be very beneficial to our country and its people but we should add the “Congressional Reform Act of 2011” which likewise was purposed but didn’t pass. It would go something like this:

The 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution

1.      “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States”.

2.      The 16th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

3.      Congress may collect no revenue by any means other than a flat individual income tax not to exceed 15% of individual’s earnings, a flat corporate tax not to exceed 10% of net revenues, and actual user fees for services. All citizens and businesses shall be taxed at the same rate, and no exceptions, exemptions or credits will be allowed.

Note: I would change it to remove all income and death taxes and replace it with a 5% federal sales tax which can never be raised.

4.      Any budget passed by the Congress must be funded by actual revenues collected through taxes as described above. Except in time of War as defined below, no deficit spending, borrowing on future funds, borrowing from other entities or other mechanism to meet budget requirements will be allowed.

5.      For purposes of this section, “War” shall be defined as hostilities declared by the President of the United States in his Constitutional role as Commander-in-Chief, and duly authorized by the Congress under the terms of the “War Powers Act” of 1973. Any funds borrowed shall be used exclusively for executing that War and shall be re-paid entirely no later than 15 years from the end of the War.

6.      All agencies, programs, entitlements and other devices that will be excised by budgetary requirements will be returned to the responsibility of the individual States. No federal regulations or legislation will dictate how the States fund or execute such devices.

7.      The Congress may not make State eligibility for redistribution of revenue contingent on compliance with regulations or legislation that has the effect of a nationally uniform standard.

8.      Those areas of federal responsibility prescribed by the original Constitution will have budgetary priority. No bill will be passed that funds any other concern without first meeting the budgetary requirements of these areas. No funding will be included in the budget for a concern that is the responsibility of and reserved to the States.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution is hereby amended to read as follows: “To regulate commerce with foreign nations and with the Indian tribes”

This would be a great start to get our nation and its government back to being what it should be. When you add the Congressional Reform Act of 2011 it would go further to say:

9.      TERM LIMITS- 12 years only, one of the possible options below.
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

10.  NO TENURE/NO PENSION- A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

11.  CONGRESS (past, present & future) PARTICIPATES in SOCIAL SECURITY- All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system and Congress participates with the American people.

Note: I would add a part here; “Everyone will have individual accounts for Social Security and receive what they pay in, the military retirees will no longer be penalized 40% of their Social Security check when they retire, and the Social Security payee’s account will be set in a Roth style retirement account and managed by IRA companies (this is so you get a good return instead of loosing money like you do currently).”

12.  CONGRESS CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN RETIREMENT PLAN- Just like each and every other American.

13.  CONGRESS WILL NO LONGER VOTE THEMSELVES a PAY RAISE- Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 2.5%.

Note: I would change this one to say all federal employees will receive the same percentage pay raise including the military with one caveat, the military can receive higher percentage of pay raises depending but congress and all elected officials can only receive the minimum.

14.  CONGRESS LOSES THEIR CURRENT HEALTH CARE SYSTEM- Congress will participate in the same health care system as the American people.

15.  CONGRESS MUST EQUALLY ABIDE by ALL LAWS- No special exemptions or treatment.

16.  ALL CONTRACTS WITH PAST AND PRESENT CONGRESSMEN ARE VOID

These sounds like a good plan and it would definitely get rid of the lot of crap we have who are career Congress people but there are a couple of other ones I would like to add.

17.  All states must verify people’s citizenship and supply them with a photo ID at no expense or inconvenience to the recipient for voting.

18.  If congress doesn’t pass a budget, they do not get paid but all other government agencies will receive pay.

19.  All bills will be single subject matter and stand on their own, no more tying bills together to get “pork Spending” through.

20.  All future bills will be written in common language so “We the People” can understand everything.

21.  All government agencies will have a item line breakdown of all expenses, if something deals with national security it will have an independent outside agency with the proper clearance to audit all money trails.

22.  All special agencies such as NSA, CIA, and FBI (examples), will be combines into one agency with different departments (NSA, CIA, and FBI) and one data base. Each department will attach flags to be notified and be notified if another agency has someone marked. It will not give details but they can now contact the agency with information that may help them or prevent them from interfering in an unknown operation.

23.  Any elected official, including the president, shown to purposely violate or purposely ignore the constitution will be removed from office. A special election will be arranged for removals from the Oval Office; states will arrange their own plan for their elected officials.

24.  Any US Attorney General or employees there of who knowingly and willfully refuse to prosecute federal criminal acts or support the laws of the United States will be charged with a felony and removed from their position.

25.  No part of the US soil can be sold to any other country entity except for the placement of an embassy. No foreign person will have diplomatic immunity for espionage, spying, murder, manslaughter, or rape.  

We need to have this amendment and it wouldn’t need to go through congress since we know they will not restrain themselves. The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures (it takes two-thirds to call a constitutional convention but three –fourths to ratify a constitutional amendment). None of the 27 amendments to the Constitution have been proposed by the congress; all have been done by the State legislatures. A proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by States (38 of 50 States) and the best part is, it can not be overturned by the US Supreme Court, Congress, or the President of the United States. This is what we need to do. Pass this around if you believe the same and let’s see what happens.

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