If we build it they will come
Below you will find our initial "Top Ten Platform Posts" upon which we will build our party platform, and "Top Twenty Bills" to be endorsed and enacted by our new party's candidates and elected officials. Please keep in mind that these are first drafts, and as much as we believe in their merit, our goal is consensus. So these documents will not be finished until all of us who will eventually comprise our party membership have agreed on them. If you'd like to join us in this grand adventure please read on, then Contact Us and tell us what you think. And don't forget to Join The Party and Donate.
top ten platform posts
1. Every American citizen possesses “inalienable” rights which cannot be abridged or denied by anyone including the government. These rights include but are not limited to: 1) the right to representative taxation, 2) the right to own and bear duly-registered firearms, and to form duly-registered militias, 3) the right to own property and to use that property as one chooses within constitutional law, 4) the right to privacy, 5) the right to practice the religion of one’s choice if that religion does not advocate the subjugation of others, 6) the right to presumed innocence, legal representation, and a speedy trial, and 7) the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All of these rights are currently endangered, or in the case of representative taxation…extinct. Therefore we propose: 1) a flat national sales tax of 20% to replace all other federal taxation of U.S. citizens, and the elimination of the IRS, 2) the revision of the National Firearms Act (NFA) to include mandatory registration of all firearms, the repeal of any and all firearms-specific taxes, and the elimination of federal restrictions on the sale and purchase of firearms and ammunition, 3) the elimination of all federal property or inheritance taxes, or other non-punitive federal costs associated with property ownership, and the restriction of government use of eminent domain to the acquisition of property crucial to government functions or the maintenance or expansion of infrastructure, 4) the restriction of government use of any metadata collected to cases of national security, 5) the rescission of Constitutional protection for any religion which does not officially denounce any form of human rights abuse in the recruitment and/or retention of its members, 6) the federal legalization of marijuana, and the review of all other minor federal offenses which rob our legal, judicial, and penal systems of valuable time and resources, and impede our citizens’ right to judicial brevity, and 7) the construction, maintenance, and manning of a national border barrier which cannot be covertly penetrated, and the perpetuation of a military sufficient to defend our citizens at home and to decimate terrorism or attack on U.S. sovereignty anywhere in the world.
2. Every American citizen is presumed equal in terms of Constitutional and legal protection, democratic participation, and economic opportunity. But all too often this is not the case. Equal legal protection has become a joke when wealthy corporate and government criminals can avoid the punishment you and I would face by paying fines we cannot afford. Therefore I propose that the penalty for a crime shall not be reduced or avoided through the payment of moneys or transfer of assets. Equal democratic participation is also laughable when the wealthy are so disproportionately represented in our electoral system. Therefore I propose that contributions for U.S. federal elections should be limited to $100 per election per U.S. citizen, with no contributions allowed from corporations. (Regardless of what the Supreme Court said, a corporation is not a person.) Enacting just this one tort reform and this one electoral reform would reduce white-collar crime, environmental crime, the length of elections, the number of election commercials, and class resentment; and would increase the focus on issues, voter participation, voter turnout, and the number and quality of candidates.
3. The term “citizen” should mean any U.S. born or naturalized person who accepts the Constitution as the law of the land and the American legal system as arbiter of that law; who, if able, is willing to support oneself and ones family without public assistance, or willing to perform government service in exchange for public assistance; who is free to retain native culture and language, but willing to learn and use our language and assimilate to our culture when necessary in matters of commerce, education, adjudication, and public discourse.
4. The founding of our country relied heavily on the tenets of Christianity and those influences should not be denied, diminished, or deleted from education, academia, government, or social institutions. While we rightly demand the “separation of Church and State” neither requires the death or domination of the other.
5. Adequately-regulated capitalism should be the preferred economic system for America as it has proven to be far more effective than socialism or any other economic or political system in the creation or wealth, the distribution of resources, and the standard of living of the citizenry. This means reasonable regulations which do not fetter American businesses’ ability to compete in the world. It also means tougher prosecution and sentencing for white collar crimes (which are almost never victimless) including mandatory minimum jail time for white collar crimes.
6. Welfare should be a safety net, not a right or a lifestyle choice, and should be made available to those who are unable, not unwilling, to provide sustenance for themselves or their families. Food stamps or cards should be a sustenance voucher, and should only be redeemable for healthy subsistence items like proteins, vegetables, fruits, starches, and safe drinking water. Food stamp fraud is a ubiquitous and relatively low-risk crime, and could be drastically reduced by making the redemption of sustenance vouchers available only to the person to whom they were issued. This might mean the implementation of technology like retinal or thumbprint scanners. Or it might just mean beefing up the identification and the record-keeping requirements of retailers
7. Our Social Security system is insolvent and should be immediately discontinued for every American citizen who has not yet begun paying into the system, and replaced by market-driven alternatives provided by private sector companies competing across state lines. Our financial obligation to every citizen who has begun paying into the system should be guaranteed and honored, but reinstatement of such a program should not be considered until such time as the current program’s financial obligations are paid in full and it can be demonstrated that any new program will operate in the black.
8. America is broke and should not borrow $2 million to spend on a study to determine if children like to eat food that’s been sneezed on. We should not borrow a billion dollars to spend on infrastructure in Palestine when our own is crumbling. We should not borrow money to fund bloated, bureaucratic, federal agencies without audit or oversight. And we should not borrow money to police an ungrateful world. Therefore we should impanel national citizen committees to determine by simple majority vote if these expenditures are critical to our national interest, and advise Congress accordingly.
9. Global climate change is real, but the extent to which humanity is responsible has not been unanimously agreed upon by scientists, and we should stop demonizing dissenting voices. However common sense and much of the evidence suggests that we are at least partly responsible for relatively dramatic planet-wide changes in our environment. Good people can disagree on this subject, but we can agree that when unsure, it is wise to err on the side of caution. So let’s err on the side of caution. Caution for our flora and fauna, caution for our children and grandchildren, caution for our planet and humanity’s future on it. This does not mean we approve gimmicks like carbon taxes which would have little effect on climate, but would further line the pockets of mega-rich carnival barkers like Al Gore, whose calamitous climate predictions have been wrong every time. However it does mean we should give at least as much weight (maybe more) to the potential environmental costs of each proposal as we do to its economic, social, or humanitarian benefits.
10. The United Nations is corrupt and anti-semitic, and has become less a source of justice for good countries, and more a political bludgeon used by bad countries. They have ignored the inequities and atrocities of theocracies and dictatorships, while condemning democracies for social justice “infractions”. And for decades they have sided with tyrannical nations and terrorist organizations against Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East. Our government has been rewarding their duplicity for years by picking up 1/4 of the tab for a party of 193. This should stop immediately, with the cessation of all payments to the U.N. except for legislated or litigated arrears payments. Further we should end our membership until such time as the U.N. modifies it’s “ability to pay” scale which allows it to charge the U.S. more than twice as much as any other member nation. And we should start charging the U.N. for services it uses in New York City. If they don’t like it, they can sell or return the 18 acres of prime riverfront property they got free. Then we can build something cool there. Maybe another Trump Tower.
top twenty bills
1. All individual and corporate federal taxes including but not limited to taxes on income, payroll, property, capital gains, dividends, estates and gifts shall be eliminated and replaced by a National Sales Tax (NST). This NST shall be set at 20% of the purchase price of all wholesale and retail goods and services, shall be included in the purchase price of said goods and services, and shall be paid at the time and point of purchase. As this tax shall comprise 100% of all federal taxes paid by U.S. citizens, the simultaneous repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment, which established the federal income tax, as well as all other laws establishing all other federal taxation, shall be required.
2. The National Sales Tax percentage may be raised only by super-majorities (2/3 of all members) in both houses of Congress, and with the signature of the President of the United States. It may be lowered by simple majority.
3. The government must operate within a balanced budget until such time as we have eliminated the national debt, except in the event of domestic humanitarian emergencies or attacks on U.S. soil or sovereignty.
4. Each state in the union shall elect or select nine legal U.S. citizens who reside in that state, and the District of Columbia shall elect or select three legal U.S. citizens who reside in that district, to serve on three national commissions. The citizens chosen from each state should be comprised as follows: 1) Three must be from the bottom 1/3, three from the middle 1/3, and three from the top 1/3 of all state incomes. 2) Six must be from the private sector and three from the government sector. 3) At least three must be from a blue collar profession. 4) No more than three may be a member of a labor union. Each commission shall contain three citizens representing the three income levels from each state, and one citizen from the District of Columbia, totaling 151 members. Members shall serve (1) one-year term and shall be paid an annual salary equal to 1.2 times the highest salary earned by a committee member in his or her occupation during the prior fiscal year. During their terms, commission members shall be sequestered, and although access to email, social media, telephone, text and other communications shall not be restricted in any way, these communications will be collected, retained, and made available to investigators in the event of credible evidence of crimes committed by or against commission members.
5. A Commission on Federal Agencies (CFA) comprised in the manner specified above, shall be empowered to hear testimony from and study the function, purview, and efficacy of all federal agencies, and to determine by a majority vote if the operations of each agency are necessary or expendable. If the committee finds that all or most of the operations performed by an agency are expendable, it shall recommend to Congress that said agency be eliminated pending the repeal of any laws mandating its operation or the transfer of any necessary operations to other agencies. If the committee determines that two or more agencies are performing duplicative necessary operations, the committee shall then recommend to Congress which agency should be granted sole jurisdiction over these duplicative operations. All federal monies or assets on hand or allocated for discontinued federal agencies shall be used to reduce the national debt or fund a Public Works Program
6. A Commission on Foreign Expenditures (CFE) comprised in the manner specified above, shall be empowered to investigate and examine the costs and benefits of all federally-funded foreign aid or loan programs, and to determine by a majority vote if each program is necessary or expendable. If the committee determines that our national interest would be better served by investing the monies or assets allocated for that program here at home, the committee shall recommend to Congress that the program be discontinued pending the repeal of any laws mandating its continuation. All federal monies or assets on hand or allocated for discontinued foreign aid shall be used to reduce the national debt or fund a Public Works Program
7. A Commission on Grants and Studies (CGS) comprised in the manner specified above, shall be empowered to investigate and examine the costs and benefits of all federally-funded grants and studies, and to determine by a majority vote if each study is necessary or expendable. If the Committee finds that a study provides little or no redeeming data, or is otherwise expendable, it will recommend to Congress that the study be discontinued pending the repeal of any laws mandating its continuation. All federal monies or assets on hand or allocated for discontinued grants or studies shall be used to reduce the national debt or fund a Public Works Program
8. Federal tariffs on goods and services imported from outside the United States shall be determined on a per-country basis and shall be equal to or as near equal as calculable to the rate at which those countries tax similarly-priced goods and services, they import from the U.S.
9. Federal elections (President, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives) shall fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government and all tools and procedures used therein including but not limited to voting machines, paper ballots, absentee ballots, early voting, on-line voting, and i.d. requirements shall be made uniform and shall be regulated by a committee comprised of elected federal, state, and local officials which shall be adequately funded to restore and protect the integrity of U.S. elections.
10. No federal funds or “bailouts” shall be paid to any for-profit company or industry until such time as a bill justifying and authorizing payment is approved by super-majorities (2/3) in both houses of Congress and signed by the President of the United States.
11. No corporate merger shall be approved until such time as a thorough examination has been conducted to determine if the resulting corporation or industry would be of such size as to be considered “too big to fail” by lawmakers in the event of a financial crisis.
12. Information contained in any metadata collected by or for the United States federal government may not be used against an American citizen in any federal court of law for any reason other than national security.
13. Federal Eminent Domain Law shall be used only for the acquisition of property which has been shown to be crucial for the minimum facilitation of government functions or the minimum facilitation of infrastructure maintenance or expansion, and shall never be used for the sole purpose of increasing government revenue.
14. The domestic cultivation, processing, sale, and consumption of marijuana shall be legal under federal law, and shall only be outlawed, regulated, or additionally-taxed by the states, except in cases of interstate commerce.
15. Congress shall recruit and hire the best financial experts available to start, manage and grow a financial fund to which anyone may contribute, and from which recognized hospitals and other medical facilities may be reimbursed for treatment of indigent or financial-hardship patients. These financial managers shall be federal employees whose sole duty shall be to manage this fund to the exclusion of all others. They shall not be allowed to own or manage any other funds or investment products, However they may invest their own money in the fund with no penalty or prosecution of insider trading laws. Those who donate to this fund shall receive no financial reward or reimbursement for their donations. However the donor list will be made public.
16. No American citizen convicted of a federal crime shall avoid or decrease the standard penalty for that crime through payment of monetary or other compensation to any federal government entity or individual. Neither shall an American citizen convicted of a crime avoid the repayment of illegally-obtained monies or other assets to the victim/s of that crime, nor avoid the payment of actual or punitive damages (as specified by judge or jury) to the victim/s of that crime or to applicable government agency by means of any movement or concealment of assets.
17. Any employee found to be complicit in a crime committed by a U.S. corporation shall be held to the same legal standard and therefore subject to the same penalty as an individual found to be complicit in the same or similar crime not committed in the employee of a corporation. However the guilty employee/s punishment shall be in addition to, not in place, of any monetary fines levied against the corporation.
18. The mission of the Department of Education is "to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access." Instead the Department of Education has overseen a steep and steady decline in our educational system over the last three decades that has left our children unprepared to compete. Therefore this department shall be dissolved and all authority vested therein shall be relinquished to the states. Also all monies and/or assets on hand at the time of dissolution shall be distributed to local, city, and county school boards and to charter and home schools on a per student basis.
19. Any federal law suit deemed frivolous or fraudulent by a judge or jury shall be dismissed and all fees paid by the the plaintiff, the plaintiff’s counsel, or some combination thereof.
20. No law shall be passed until such time as three or more, obsolete, unconstitutional, or inordinately burdensome laws have been repealed.