Mike's New US Government

Dan already gave his version in the previous post, so I figure it's my turn to write on this topic as well.

I too would prefer to have a government that is much smaller than the one that is currently in place. My model government would keep the same basic features that are currently in the Constitution. That is, I wouldn't make any changes to the constitution except for the ones listed below.

1. Term Limits: I would make a universal 12 year term limit for any elected or appointed position in the government. That would mean 3 terms for the President, 6 terms for Congressmen, 2 terms for Senators and one 12 year term for Supreme Court Justices. If you can't get done what you want to have done in 12 years, then you're just leeching onto government.
   
2. The Executive Branch: There are quite a few changes to be done here. First of all, all executive orders are only good until the end of the term of the president who made them. If the president wants them to be permanent, then go through the process of making them law. And then there's the slash and burn that will be the departments. I would reduce them to:
   
   
   • State Dept.
     
   • Dept. of Defense and Homeland Security (merged into one department)
     
   • Dept. of Treasury, Commerce, and Transportation (merged into one department)
     
   • Dept. of Justice
   
   Basically, these are the only functions that are best served on a national level. This cuts the deadweight, such as Agriculture, HHS, Education, and Veterans Affairs.
   
3. The Legislative and Judicial Branches: Nothing I would change here except for term limits.
   
4. The Constitution: I would repeal the Income Tax amendment. That would mean that the government would have to raise revenue by other means, such as excise taxes or a consumption tax such as a National Sales Tax. Otherwise, the Constitution stays the way it is.

That's how I would run this country. Ideally, power would be shifted back down to the states as the Federal government would have things like Education taken away from it. I do like Dan's idea of having all tax increases and borrowing requiring 3/4ths of the states approval. I would also toy with the idea of making borrowing possible through referendum, but as California shows us, that's not always a good idea. Nothing like having the states required to tack on spending and borrowing. It would also force the government into keeping a balanced budget, unless there is a time of crisis. That would be fine by me.

It would be interesting to see how this would turn out, but I seriously doubt that this would ever get past the drawing board, since there are way too many factions with an interest in keeping the status quo. There's also the question of what to do with entitlement programs such as Social Security, Welfare, and Medicare. I would just rather do away with them, but we all know that's not going to happen.

So that's my dream government, with all the fat cut off. I know there's a snowball's chance in hell of it coming to pass, but you never know.