Here’s a list of 97 taxes that almost everyone pays. It’s a list that includes so many daily activities that no one escapes paying at least one of them, if not most of them. Is there anyone who doesn’t own a telephone? Look at your phone bill to see the taxes that are on it. Do you have a car? You pay taxes on the gasoline or diesel fuel you use. Those taxes are included in the price you pay for everything you consume.
Despite all of those “hidden” taxes our federal government and many state governments are deep in debt. To politicians a tax increase only means they have more money to spend. What do they spend it on? Creating more government bureaucracies to regulate every aspect of your life! Does it matter to the politicians that there probably already is at least one government bureaucracy doing what the “new one” will do? Hell, no! The politicians don’t care because bureaucracies increase the power of our federal government.
What is the solution? There is a solution. The solution is to make our government smaller. Can it be made smaller? Yes, it can! It must be made smaller! How can that be done? To know how to do that, one must know what caused it. What caused our government to get too big? Three laws caused this to happen. Those laws have been on the books for over 100 years. They are the; 1) XVI Amendment (1913). 2) The XVII Amendment (1913). 3) The Apportionment Act of 1911 (AKA Public Law 62-5). All three laws need to be repealed. I doubt anyone needs an explanation of why the XVI Amendment should be repealed.
The XVII Amendment changed how our Senators are chosen. With that amendment Senators are directly elected by the citizens of their state instead of being elected by the state legislatures. What that did was to remove a Senator’s accountability to their state. Instead of being accountable to their state legislature Senators are now accountable to the lobbyists in Washington. When Senators were chosen by their state legislature they were more concerned with and how bills affected their state. A Senator’s election by their state legislature was a check on the power of Washington. That check on the power of Washington is gone. The repeal of the XVII Amendment is part of the solution. The important part of the solution is the repeal of the little known one, Public Law 62-5 (PL 62-5).
It is the repeal of PL 62-5 that will do the most to solve the problem of a government that is too damn big! It will do so in a way that most people think has just the opposite effect. What PL 62-5 did was limit the number of Representatives in Congress to 435. According to our Constitution (Article I Section 2 clause 3) there should be one Representative for every thirty thousand citizens. With the number of Representatives limited to 435 the average population of a Congressional district, as adjusted for the 2010 census, will be 710,767 people. That is far too many people for one person to represent in Congress! As the population of the U.S. grows the number of people in every Congressional district will too. Government is best when it is as close as possible to the people it serves. What must be done is to decrease the number of people a member of Congress represents by increasing the number of Representatives. Most people have the idea that increasing the number of Representatives will make our government bigger.
It won’t? Why won’t it? Because it weakens the power of Congress! What the repeal of PL 62-5 would do is dramatically increase the number of Representatives in Congress. Instead of the 435 Representatives we have now we would have over 10,300. How you might ask will that weaken the power of our government? It will do so by diluting the power of our government. Not only will the power of the Representatives be checked but it also reduces, if not eliminates, the power of the lobbyists in Washington. There isn’t a lobbying firm in the country that has the time or money to effectively lobby 10,300 Representatives spread out across the country.
When there are 10,300 Representatives meeting in Washington will not be feasible. If they cannot meet in Washington where will they meet? They can meet the same you are reading this, by meeting online. It doesn’t matter where they meet, nor do they have to meet in person. But, if they don’t, how will they do what they were elected to do? Thanks to the internet members of Congress can stay at home in their districts and still do their job.
When our Representatives don’t meet in Washington they will have to spend more time in the districts they represent. When our Representatives spend more time in their districts they will be more accountable to the people they represent. When our Representatives actually live and work in their districts it will be easier for the people they represent to see them. When our Representatives are living in their district they will be shopping at the local supermarket, buying gas at a local gas station, eating in local restaurants, and going to local places of entertainment. When our Representatives live in their districts their staff will live there too and Congressional districts will be a lot smaller.
The work to repeal PL 62-5 will be difficult. Another possible way to remove it would be to file a lawsuit testing its Constitutionality. Its Constitutionality is questionable because it changed our Constitution but did not amend it. Members of Congress will not want to voluntarily relinquish power. It is human nature to want power and to hold on to it as long as is possible. Lobbyists will fight the repeal of them because their power and jobs depend on it. The more power they have the less freedom we have. The repeal of these laws will help restore limited Constitutional government to our country. If we really want the power of Washington to be broken these laws must be repealed! The repeal of these and other laws will begin to reduce the size of our government. It is why the A1S8 Society (Shrink The Government) exists!
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