Federal Government Reforms

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No More Redistribution of Wealth – it’s led us to the brink of disaster. Our elected officials for generations have put us on a path to destruction. We the People have a responsibility as Americans to put an end to this fiscal irresponsibility.

*No more Fair Trade Agreements* such as NAFTA which has only hurt the American Worker.

*A bill must be introduced called the Congressional Responsibility Act* that will require all proposed regulations from Departments or Agencies be sent to Congress for a “up or down vote” by both House and Senate and Signed into law as stated in Article 1 Section 1 as was the original intent. As to Czars, all that needs to done is remove their congressional funding, no matter who’s in the White House. We must also repeal LBJ’s bill amending the tax code restricting Political Free Speech that is an unconstitutional burden on free speech under the First Amendment. Accordingly the tax rule now stands alone “prohibiting” not only express advocacy by charitable corporations, but also suppresses other forms of political speech as defined at will by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). A challenge to the Constitutionality of the “Political Activities Prohibition” thus seems inevitable, I however believe repealing this law from the present tax code will be the best way of resolving this issue this will also enable voters to see whether their Representatives truly stand up for the 1st Amendment or not.

*Federal Court System Appointments* All appointments to the Federal Court System including the Supreme Court to One Ten Year Term and District Courts to One Seven Year Term appointments, these appointments approval based on all rulings using US Constitution as the Guiding Light.Term Limits will end the security some Judges have that allows them to Legislate from the Bench with their lifetime appointments, insuring many Unconstitutional Decisions made strictly on their Political Philosophies. I believe this will give the American Citizen a restored trust in the Judicial System and prevent loading the courts for the purpose of Social Justice.  We must also solve the problem of Term Limits for Federal Office Holders as well, this can be done by having US Senators serve just two 6 year terms and the House serving 5 two year terms or amending their term to 3 years and only serving three, this would allow Senators to serve and not spend their time raising campaign funds and the Congressman facing fewer re election efforts thereby limiting or even removing any real influence of lobbyists etc., not allow any to work as a lobbyist for 6 years after leaving office. The fore mentioned Term Limits on Judges and Elected Senators and Representatives would take a Constitutional Amendment, however I believe it’s over due and desperately needed.

We must downsize our government now by putting a ten year freeze on bonuses, a five year freezeon all hiring and salaries of any type excluding those who serve in the Military.This will bring a reduction of at least 10% just by attrition with people retiring and leaving for other jobs. We must also begin to downsize by another 3% per year for 5 years, thereby bringing the government’s size down by another 15% with the fore mentioned freeze we get a total reduction of 25% over 5 years, the end result through this process we’ll be able to close entire Departments that have no Constitutional Authority to exist without effecting the unemployment of the Country.

The closing of Departments and some history on them, the departments of Commerce and Labor were originally the Department of Commerce and Labor (1903). The Department of Defense was originally the Department of War (1798). The departments of Education, and Health and Human Services were originally the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (1953). The Department of State was originally called the Department of Foreign Affairs. The Department of Justice was originally just the Office of the Attorney General (1789). The Postal Service existed as the cabinet-level- Post Office Department 1792 to 1971.

Does the Constitution authorize any of them? It is apparent from reading Articles I and II of the Constitution that six of the current executive-branch departments have no constitutional justification whatsoever to exist, four of them are apparently authorized by the Constitution, three of them might possibly be authorized by the Constitution, two of them should be combined with other departments, and one is missing, which is the USPS that existed from 1792 until it became just the Postal Service in 1971 is clearly authorized by the Constitution in Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 7. The departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor cannot be justified in any way by the Constitution. Where in the Constitution is the federal government authorized to have anything to do with agriculture, education, energy, health, housing, or labor?  Much of the welfare state is maintained by these departments. We have 15 Departments of which 4 are Constitutionally Compliant, 9 aren’t and 7 should be closed 2 could be merged into the Dept. of Defense. Our government uses the General Welfare stated in the Constitution to allow for those not authorized and this wasn’t the intent of the statement by our Founders, however used by those in government to grow the size, scope and cost to all of us.

•US Department of State* est. 1789 / 2017 Budget 50.1 Billion

•US Department of Treasury* est. 1789 / Present Budget 17.2 Billion

•US Department of Justice* est. 1870 / Present Budget 28 Billion 

•US Department of Defense* 1947, previously called Dept. of War / Present Budget 582 Billion

•US Department of Veterans Affairs* 1989 / 2017 Budget 182.3 Billion Merge with the Department of Defense

•US Department of Homeland Security* est. 2002 / 2017 Budget 47.3 Billion Merge with the Department of Defense 

•The One missing is the USPS that existed from 1792 until it became just the Postal Service in 1971 is clearly authorized by the Constitution in Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 7.

•We must Close the following departments now* by applying the US Constitutional Compliance to all with a five year target to close them with No Exceptions*

•US Department of Interior* est. 1849 / Present Budget 30.7 Billion, Must Close, as Fed not suppose to own land or control water, game etc.

•US Department of Agriculture* est. 1862 / Present Budget 139.7 Billion Must Close

•US Department of Labor* est. 1913 / Present Budget 13 Billion  Must Close 

•US Department of Commerce* est. 1913 / Present Budget 10 Billion  Must Close

•US Department of Housing & Urban Development* est. 1965: / Present Budget 48 Billion Must Close

•US Department of Transportation* est. 1966: / 2017 Budget 30 Billion  Must Close 

•US Department of Energy* est. 1977 / 2017 Budget 32.5 Billion with plans to add 30 Billion more a year for 10 years Must Close

•US Department of Education by Pres. Carter est.* 1979 / Present Budget 73 Billion  Must Close and return the All Control of schools to the states

•US Department of Health and Human Services* est. 1979 / 2017 Budget 70 Billion Must Close

Many Agencies within the Federal Gov. must be Closed with remaining *Federal Agencies* if any put in check to eliminate their ability to Legislate by writing / creating Regulations / Laws without Congressional Oversight such as the EPA, OSHA and others that don’t pass Constitutional Authority to exist. The *Departments* that need closing are UNCONSTITUTIONAL and therefore have no merit: eliminating them shouldn’t present a problem for a Constitutional Republic, that is if those in DC are really Conservatives as they claim to be. These eliminated Departments and Agencies responsibilities can and should be handled by State & Local Governments which are closest to the people, as was meant to be from the Founding of Our Country. This process will also substantially add to the shrinking of the Federal Government and save us more than 1.5 Trillion Annually. Check Link: http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-constitution-versus-the-executive-branch-departments/

We must vote in a Balanced Budget Amendment with no more than 18% of GDP. The only exception would be a real national emergency such as a war or natural disaster other and only given when asked for by the states.

We must not only stop borrowing but also stop all the spending that is done in the form of subsidies to all types of projects whether to farmers not to grow food, oil companies, museums, Public TV, and all Foreign Aid, to name a few.

We must revise our tax system so those that achieve success are not punished for being successful. For any meaningful reform we must Repeal the 16th Amendment to prevent the Federal Government from continuing to have the ability to tax our incomes, or no real reform will take place. We have two choices either the Flat Tax or the Fair Tax. The Flat Tax will simplify the tax code and downsize the IRS so we can unleash an economic boom that creates millions of jobs, boosts wages, and expands opportunity for all, so those that achieve success are not punished for being successful. Flat Taxplans won’t get the IRS out of your life, or out of the way of job creator’s in America, but the plan will cut spending and balance the budget in just five years. It will be the largest tax cut in American history and a tax cut that will leave more money in the paychecks of every worker in America. The flat-tax applies to all personal income which includes wages, salaries, dividend, capital gains, rents and interest. FICA taxes are also removed which, ends corporate welfare, creating simple tax returns one page long. All present Deductions except for Mortgage and Charities are eliminated under this plan. A family of four with an income of $50,000 or less pays no tax, and low income families retain the earned-income tax credit. The Flat tax as proposed by Senator Rand Paul is quite simple based on a tax rate of 15% and allows the first $50,000 earned to be deductible and removes FICA while allowing the deductions for Mortgages and Charitable deductions. Rand’s plan however doesn’t require repealing the 16th Amendment therefore the Federal Government will still have the legal right to continue taxing all personal and business incomes, which is at the root of our tax law problems.  I also believe if a Flat Tax is put in place the rate will be closer to 20%, however if the citizen having more of their earned income left it is very possibly over all taxes paid could be lower.

Brief Explanation of The Fair Tax The Fair Tax already has 72 sponsors in the House and 7 more in the US Senate which I plan to join when elected. The Fair Tax eliminates all corporate and personal Federal Income Taxes, all payroll, dividend, capital gains and estate taxes, replaced by one embedded sales tax on the sale of all NEW GOODS and services at the retail level. To do this of course will require as previously stated a repeal of the 16th Amendment to prevent any future tax on incomes.

The average amount of the embedded taxes in the cost of everything we buy in a retail business is approximately 22%.  This would mean that we are replacing the embedded cost of our present tax system of 22 % with an Embedded Fair Tax of 23 %. Every American Citizen household will receive a Pre bate Credit at the end of every month equal to the amount of Fair Tax that household would be expected to pay during that month on the basic necessities of life. Poverty figures for a various family sizes from the Commerce Department will be used to calculate the size of this “Prebate”.  This will guarantee that nobody will have to pay the Fair Tax on the basic necessities of life, which will guarantee more spendable income for all.

Calculation of the PREBATE: The monthly prebate credit is calculated by multiplying the annual consumption allowance as measured by the Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines times the Fair Tax rate divided by twelve. Poverty level spending represents what it costs families of varying household size and composition to buy their necessities. The table below shows the monthly prebate amount for households of varying composition.

The Fair Tax prebate explained, updated January 2015.

Again To Prevent Future Problems with the Federal Government and Intrusion into the lives of Americans we must Repeal the 16th Amendment with all its’ statutes in our present Tax Code; that which allows the IRS to harass citizens applying for a tax exempt status for almost any reason the IRS chose to use, this must be done to guarantee our Freedoms.

I Believe either of these plans will be better for the American Tax Payer and Businesses then the present IRS system at present, which is not only complicated for most to understand, it also infringes on Americans God Granted Unalienable Rights. For any new plan there must be No Tax on Any Social Security.

We also need to go to a Zero-Based Budget The current Baseline Budget System automatically increases budgets every year needed or not, this allows our government to grow even though it has no need to. We must do what most successful businesses do, which is to simply go to a Zero Base Budgeting system, in place of the Baseline System we are presently using. Remove capital gains tax rates and abolish the death tax permanently.

The federal budget should be no more than 15% of the Gross Domestic Product, the only exceptions are actual national emergencies, such as war. Aid to states must be repaid.

• Fair trade with foreign countries
• Reciprocal taxes on imports that we receive on exports
• Ban imports of products that infringe on US copy right laws.

Our foreign debt of over 30% is held by foreign governments many of which are our enemies, if we can remember what that means. The interest we pay them funds many of the projects for their citizens, while we keep borrowing from them to keep increasing our runaway spending. The United States borrows at a rate of 42 cents of every dollar we spend. This is a recipe for bankruptcy, if not criminal certainly anti-American. D.C. spends our money without any type of plan or responsible foresight, as we continue down the road to total financial collapse similar to that of our so-called European allies – where they’re broke, headed for default. Then we’ll the UNITED STATES… will be expected to clean up the mess as we have done twice before in the 20th century.  Check Oklahoma Senator Coburn’s Book, called Waste book for details on some of the wasteful spending by those in DC. However, the largest holder of our debt may surprise you as it’s the Social Security Trust Fundand Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund at $2.783 trillion, does this give you a warm feeling knowing each and every time they raise the Debt Ceiling it’s you and me and Our Retirement Security that backs it up. These are other holders of Our Debt and yes, it’s still US as of Sept. 2014!

• Office of Personnel Management Retirement – $928 Billion
• Military Retirement Fund – $483 billion
• Uniformed Services Retiree Health Care Fund – $189 billion
• Dept. of Health and Human Services (Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund) – $270 Billion
• Cash on Hand to the Federal Government $463
• Other Programs and Funds – $117 billion. (Source: Treasury Bulletin, Monthly Treasury Statement, Table 6. Schedule  D-Investments of Federal Government Accounts in Federal Securities, September 2014).

This type of Scheme, Financial Wizardry would put any of US in Prison and yet those in office continue to perpetrate it on US, time to Clean House and I do mean all of them.

We also owe over $1.238 Trillion to our ally Japan. $1.239 to Trillion China a formidable Challenger in the Pacific, we pay close to $560 million in interest a week to China. Oil Exporting Countries $270 Billion, Brazil $260 Billion, do you still wonder why we seem to have so Little Influence around the World, well we’re in **DEBT** to all of Them. Just think what we could do with that amount of INTEREST money to improve schools, roads etc. At the rate we’re continuing to borrow and spend we’ll never be able to pay this money back to any of them, so we’ll default: seems more like a plan to destroy our Sovereign Nation than just bad spending policies with the Thieves in Charge of the Finances.

The interest we pay on our debt today is more than our past years’ entire Federal Budgets. So tell me we’re not out of control and we the people need to put a stop to this now. The excess money we’d realize upon implementing the above measures must be used to pay down the debt, not used for any additional spending (*) Note, our debt includes the current $90 Trillion Dollars in Unfunded Mandates.

We must return federally controlled lands back to the States as well. In addition I believe we must audit the Federal Reserve and then over a 5 yr. period close it.

In Closing Election Cycles are Critical for the Nation as to whether we sink deeper into a Socialistic Nation or Restore Ourselves to a True Republic form of Government. The choices are clear, never support anyone who votes against or compromises the US Constitution and Our Freedoms and believe that’s actually what most of us are hoping for and the GOP power brokers are afraid of: ( Time to Drain All Political Swamps ).

God Bless You All; Clair Van Steenwyk

Originally posted by Clair 9/11/2011 Updated by Clair 2/09/2014 Updated by Clair 7/18/15