OUR STORY

When they built our great Constitution our founding fathers gave us a playbook that is still going strong two and a half centuries later.

But they didn’t finish the job. They didn’t establish rules to properly process and safeguard all the money we send to our central government. There was too much else to do in the hot summer of 1787. They had a country to build and huge obstacles to overcome to do it.

When the Constitution was ratified our federal budget was $4 million. Today our federal budget is $4 trillion. That’s one million times larger. But we continue to use the same Constitution, with no rules for proper financial management, as we did when our government was one millionth the size it is today.

Maybe the founders would fix it later, after they had gotten the basics done. But they didn’t. Maybe future generations of leaders would do it. But they haven’t.

So 233 years later our Constitution remains silent on safeguarding and properly managing the people’s money. (Read here sections of the Constitution dealing with money)

So the outcome should not surprise us. The financial management of our federal government today is a mess and has been for a long time. And it is getting worse.

It is producing bad results across the board. It is hurting our country. And it is hurting us. We need new rules so our government can better manage our money.

It is not just about too much spending, bad as that is (more about the five main problems areas here). The  is a package of five brief Constitutional Amendments (see the full text here) that requires adherence to clear process instructions, and penalties for non-compliance, in…

  • Taxation
  • Spending
  • Social Security and Medicare
  • Proper Accounting, Reporting, and Transparency
  • Regulations

When they built our great Constitution our founding fathers gave us a playbook that is still going strong two and a half centuries later.

But they didn’t finish the job. They didn’t establish rules to properly process and safeguard all the money we send to our central government. There was too much else to do in the hot summer of 1787. They had a country to build and huge obstacles to overcome to do it.

When the Constitution was ratified our federal budget was $4 million. Today our federal budget is $4 trillion. That’s one million times larger. But we continue to use the same Constitution, with no rules for proper financial management, as we did when our government was one millionth the size it is today.

Maybe the founders would fix it later, after they had gotten the basics done. But they didn’t. Maybe future generations of leaders would do it. But they haven’t.

So 233 years later our Constitution remains silent on safeguarding and properly managing the people’s money. (Read here sections of the Constitution dealing with money)

So the outcome should not surprise us. The financial management of our federal government today is a mess and has been for a long time. And it is getting worse.

It is producing bad results across the board. It is hurting our country. And it is hurting us. We need new rules so our government can better manage our money.

It is not just about too much spending, bad as that is (more about the five main problems areas here). The  is a package of five brief Constitutional Amendments (see the full text here) that requires adherence to clear process instructions, and penalties for non-compliance, in…

  • Taxation
  • Spending
  • Social Security and Medicare
  • Proper Accounting, Reporting, and Transparency
  • Regulations

WE CAN FIX THIS, AND WE MUST

Undisciplined and unchecked by our silent Constitution, Congress has become part of the problem. We The People must fix this ourselves, before it is too late.

Don’t let anyone tell you this is above your pay grade, that you can’t do it, it’s too complex for you, that it’s not possible to actually change our government with a few simple rules that will have huge, profound impacts – to set right decades of financial mismanagement of our people’s money with five clear straightforward amendments to our U.S. Constitution.

That’s where you come in. That’s what this project is about, to seize this moment, this opportunity to write another of those American stories, to fix this once and for all, so Uncle Sam can manage our hard-earned tax money the way it should, according to the highest professional standards and common sense.

This project, new and not yet fully funded, seeks to require our federal government to do five straightforward things:

  1. Eliminate the use of our tax system to dispense favors and privilege by complex deals, exemptions and a lengthy, secretive tax code; to use our tax system solely to fairly, broadly, and efficiently tax our people and our businesses enough to finance the legitimate operations of our government and no more.
  2. Stop spending more than its revenues unless there is a declared emergency; repay over time the massive amounts of accumulated federal debt; and give our President the line item veto to unpack lengthy complex appropriations legislation designed to fund projects and interests that otherwise could not stand on their own.
  3. Separate the payroll taxes that we pay for our Social Security retirement, disability compensation, and Medicare from other government funds and enable an independent team of investment professionals to invest and account for these funds protected from Congressional misappropriations.
  4. Properly account for the money received and spent according to rules developed by the independent Financial Accounting Foundation and thoroughly explain our government’s financial activities and results.
  5. Establish impartial, fast track Administrative Courts as part of our judicial branch to resolve disputes between citizens and federal government regulators.

The framers gave us the means to get this done—A Convention of The States under Article V of the Constitution. Two thirds (34) of the states must agree. Citizens’ groups have been calling for a Convention of The States for several years now.

One group claims 28 states have already signed on, with only 6 more to go. But this group wants only to deal with runaway federal spending by ratifying the so-called Balanced Budget Amendment. That would solve one part of the problem leaving the other four to do more damage. That is a serious mistake that will lead to years, perhaps decades, of more waste and mismanagement.

We already know from history what happens when a Convention adjourns leaving the job unfinished. We cannot wait another 233 years to fix this.

We must persuade this group and others to support our

not just to limit spending but to fix all five of the serious financial problems before us.

Undisciplined and unchecked by our silent Constitution, Congress has become part of the problem. We The People must fix this ourselves, before it is too late.

Don’t let anyone tell you this is above your pay grade, that you can’t do it, it’s too complex for you, that it’s not possible to actually change our government with a few simple rules that will have huge, profound impacts– to set right decades of financial mismanagement of our people’s money with five clear straightforward amendments to our U.S. Constitution.

That’s where you come in. That’s what this project is about, to seize this moment, this opportunity to write another of those American stories, to fix this once and for all, so Uncle Sam can manage our hard-earned tax money the way it should, according to the highest professional standards and common sense.

This project, new and not yet fully funded, seeks to require our federal government to do five straightforward things:

  1. Eliminate the use of our tax system to dispense favors and privilege by complex deals, exemptions and a lengthy, secretive tax code; to use our tax system solely to fairly, broadly, and efficiently tax our people and our businesses enough to finance the legitimate operations of our government and no more.
  2. Stop spending more than its revenues unless there is a declared emergency; repay over time the massive amounts of accumulated federal debt; and give our President the line item veto to unpack lengthy complex appropriations legislation designed to fund projects and interests that otherwise could not stand on their own.
  3. Separate the payroll taxes that we pay for our Social Security retirement, disability compensation, and Medicare from other government funds and enable an independent team of investment professionals to invest and account for these funds protected from Congressional misappropriations.
  4. Properly account for the money received and spent according to rules developed by the independent Financial Accounting Foundation and thoroughly explain our government’s financial activities and results.
  5. Establish impartial, fast track Administrative Courts as part of our judicial branch to resolve disputes between citizens and federal government regulators.

The framers gave us the means to get this done—A Convention of The States under Article V of the Constitution. Two thirds (34) of the states must agree. Citizens’ groups have been calling for a Convention of The States for several years now.

One group claims 28 states have already signed on, with only 6 more to go. But this group wants only to deal with runaway federal spending by ratifying the so-called Balanced Budget Amendment. That would solve one part of the problem leaving the other four to do more damage. That is a serious mistake that will lead to years, perhaps decades, of more waste and mismanagement.

We already know from history what happens when a Convention adjourns leaving the job unfinished. We cannot wait another 233 years to fix this.

We must persuade this group and others to support our
not just to limit spending but to fix all five of the serious financial problems before us.

Let’s look more closely at the five problems we must solve.

1. TAXATION

124 years after the Constitution’s ratification, in 1913, we added an income tax. Lots more money flowed in. But there were no Constitutional safeguards included for that either.

And now, a century later, Congress has built a 75,000 page, unmanageable Internal Revenue Code that is complex, secretive, corrupt, confusing, and unfair that permits one in five large, profitable U.S. companies and 47% of our citizens to pay no federal income tax.

Our tax code is full of deductions, exemptions, exclusions, alternatives and other special circumstances. Congress and the IRS call these “tax expenditures”.

Each year our national government collects about $4 trillion in federal income taxes, but the sum of all of the tax expenditures is about $1.6 trillion, an amount equal to 40% of the taxes actually collected.

1. TAXATION

124 years after the Constitution’s ratification, in 1913, we added an income tax. Lots more money flowed in. But there were no Constitutional safeguards included for that either.

And now, a century later, Congress has built a 75,000 page, unmanageable Internal Revenue Code that is complex, secretive, corrupt, confusing, and unfair that permits one in five large, profitable U.S. companies and 47% of our citizens to pay no federal income tax.

Our tax code is full of deductions, exemptions, exclusions, alternatives and other special circumstances. Congress and the IRS call these “tax expenditures”.

Each year our national government collects about $4 trillion in federal income taxes, but the sum of all of the tax expenditures is about $1.6 trillion, an amount equal to 40% of the taxes actually collected.

2. SPENDING

Federal spending is out of control. It took our country 183 years, until 1972, to reach the first trillion dollars of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In all those years our government made do with less. In 1964 for example, President Lyndon Johnson led Congress to major spending cuts to hold the 1964 federal budget to less than $100 billion.

Yet during those years up to 1972 our United States built the interstate highway system, fought four major international wars, built and maintained a standing military in peacetime, established Social Security and Medicare, and put Americans on the moon; all this while also enacting groundbreaking legislation in civil rights, voting rights, highway and auto safety, aid to education, workplace safety, and major reforms to help ensure clean air and clean water.

In less than 50 years since 1972 our GDP has grown by more than twenty times, from $1 trillion to $21.4 trillion, producing huge increases in federal government tax receipts. Yet we still cannot balance federal government revenue and expenses.

This is because it is easier to say yes to everyone and fund it with more debt, because nobody seems to care, than to tell constituents the truth that there is not enough money to go around unless we raise taxes. So therefore some things will have to wait.

2. SPENDING

Federal spending is out of control. It took our country 183 years, until 1972, to reach the first trillion dollars of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In all those years our government made do with less. In 1964 for example, President Lyndon Johnson led Congress to major spending cuts to hold the 1964 federal budget to less than $100 billion.

Yet during those years up to 1972 our United States built the interstate highway system, fought four major international wars, built and maintained a standing military in peacetime, established Social Security and Medicare, and put Americans on the moon; all this while also enacting groundbreaking legislation in civil rights, voting rights, highway and auto safety, aid to education, workplace safety, and major reforms to help ensure clean air and clean water.

In less than 50 years since 1972 our GDP has grown by more than twenty times, from $1 trillion to $21.4 trillion, producing huge increases in federal government tax receipts. Yet we still cannot balance federal government revenue and expenses.

This is because it is easier to say yes to everyone and fund it with more debt, because nobody seems to care, than to tell constituents the truth that there is not enough money to go around unless we raise taxes. So therefore some things will have to wait.

3. ACCOUNTING

Federal government accounting does not conform to accounting industry standards leading some scholars to contend that present practices are fraudulent and do not conform to the minimal Constitutional instruction that “a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”

4. REGULATIONS

There are some 170,000 pages of federal regulations full of unfunded mandates and stealth taxation without representation, many of which may not even be authorized in law, with no fair means by which the regulated can challenge the regulatory agencies’ rulings other than by lengthy and costly litigation.

For every law passed by Congress, officials throughout the government publish 21 regulations, written and enforced by people who were not elected,  who are not always identified with the rules they enforce, and who are extremely difficult to challenge much less to remove from office.

3. ACCOUNTING

Federal government accounting does not conform to accounting industry standards leading some scholars to contend that present practices are fraudulent and do not conform to the minimal Constitutional instruction that “a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”

4. REGULATIONS

There are some 170,000 pages of federal regulations full of unfunded mandates and stealth taxation without representation, many of which may not even be authorized in law, with no fair means by which the regulated can challenge the regulatory agencies’ rulings other than by lengthy and costly litigation.

For every law passed by Congress, officials throughout the government publish 21 regulations, written and enforced by people who were not elected,  who are not always identified with the rules they enforce, and who are extremely difficult to challenge much less to remove from office.

5. SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

Our Social Security and Medicare programs are structurally flawed and mismanaged. Rather than fix them, Congress regularly threatens citizens that both programs may in a few years go broke.

The American economy is the mightiest wealth creating engine in history, producing over 3,000 new millionaires every day. Yet Social Security and Medicare do not benefit one bit from our proven wealth creating ability because the government takes the money from our retirement payroll taxes and spends it on paying other government bills rather than investing it.

If our money were prudently invested by experts we would receive during our retirement years twice the monthly amounts from Social Security and Medicare that we now get.

5. SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

Our Social Security and Medicare programs are structurally flawed and mismanaged. Rather than fix them, Congress regularly threatens citizens that both programs may in a few years go broke.

The American economy is the mightiest wealth creating engine in history, producing over 3,000 new millionaires every day. Yet Social Security and Medicare do not benefit one bit from our proven wealth creating ability because the government takes the money from our retirement payroll taxes and spends it on paying other government bills rather than investing it.

If our money were prudently invested by experts we would receive during our retirement years twice the monthly amounts from Social Security and Medicare that we now get.