Amendments I’d Like To See Passed

Everyone always says that the system could be better if we just had this thing done or that change applied.  The United States Constitution is no exception as I am no exception in this matter.  I’ve already discussed the progressive amendments and my opinions on them, but today I’d like to list the amendments I’d like to see applied to the United States Constitution and why:

• Amendment repealing the 16th amendment – this amendment would eliminate all forms of taxation, save for a sales tax on new products and services and tariffs imposed on international trading.  In essence, it eliminates a contradiction in the United States Constitution where you cannot be unlawfully searched without a warrant, but at the same time you have to submit your income or face jail time.  Talk about tyranny.  Whatever Congress ultimately decides on doing, be it a straight sales tax, the FairTax, or a system of tariffs on trade, this amendment will not address, merely the time frame that they have to address it.
• Amendment repealing the 17th amendment – this amendment would ensure that all United States Senators were selected through whatever process the state legislatures decided on.  This way we would have a whole house of Congress that was not dependent on the money pushed by special interests and instead loyal to the state legislatures who selected them.  This also ensures that the two houses both represent opposite sides of tyranny and effectively cancel each other out more often than not.
• The Balanced Budget Amendment – this amendment would force Congress to pass budgets that are a zero sum game.  It means that they will have to make sure, by law, that they are not misbehaving with the tax dollars they’ve forcibly taken from us (unless the 16th is repealed).  There would be loopholes, though, like a 3/5 majority to override the budget and the fact that this amendment wouldn’t apply during a formal declaration of war.  Incidentally, this amendment would push Congress to declare wars instead of shirking their own responsibilities and laying total blame on the President when things go badly.
• Impose term limits on Congress – limit the total number of years that a member of Congress can serve to 12 for either house.  This way we don’t get lifelong members who don’t leave until after the long awaited brain tumor has snuffed out what’s left of their morally bankrupt lives.  I don’t care if we have a good member in there.  On average, there’s been more bad than good when it comes to members of Congress.
• Impose term limits on Federal Judges – the total amount of time a judge should be allowed to serve on both Inferior and Superior Courts is 10 years.  After 10 years, a judge cannot serve on any bench.  Again, this ensures that we don’t get judges who go through senility while on the bench, which has happened in the past more often than it should have.  I heard that Thurgood Marshall urinated himself in his farewell speech.  Talk about being at a job for way too long.
• Allow Senate to overturn Federal Court rulings by a 2/3 vote – this adds an extra check on the court system, which has been wholly inadequate for as long as our Constitution has been around.  I have to give credit to Mark Levin for this idea and it is a pretty good one.
• Clarify the Interstate Commerce Clause – From what I’ve read in the Federalist papers, it seems to me that this clause was about dealing with tariffs that states would impose on goods from other states.  Today, it’s been warped and stretched so much that people aren’t even sure what that means anymore.  At least we can ensure that many of the powers assumed by the Federal government under this clause would go away and thus, freedom would ring out again.
• Allow states to secede on 3/4 vote of state legislatures – One of the things that could have prevented the Civil War was the clarification that the United States Constitution was a contract between the several states and that they were free to dissolve the contract if they have just cause to do so.  This would also have kept the Federal government from overstepping it boundaries and given the state governments a sovereign edge.
• Ensure the Constitution trumps all treaties signed – Since many treaties are more than just simple trade agreements these days, it is imperative that we make sure our sovereignty isn’t signed away, with the approval of the Senate, to some foreign dictator.

That’s the short list with some short explanations.  The founding fathers saw fit to enable some kind of amendment process because they recognized that the United States Constitution was not a perfect system of government.  In this case, I am merely patching up some holes, as I see it, in the system they set up and, in some cases, fixing the bugs that were created from other fixes.
But I guess that’s what this lowly software developer is good at.