Constitutional Amendments

[TahoeHorn 107]

What Constitutional Amendments would you like to see which could pass?

1. The Supreme Court is fixed at nine seats.  (I fear the war over the Judicial Branch will go nuts.)

2. The Senate must have 60 votes to cut off debate except for nominations, the annual budget, one appropriations bill per term, and any legislation terminating mandatory expenditures.  The appropriations bill may not include any provisions which last longer than the term.

3. Candidates for President, Vice-President, the Senate and Congress must file independent financial statements and medical evaluations.

4. The President, the Vice-President, Senators and Congressmen must have all financial affairs other than certain holdings  (e.g. $1MM and non-commercial real estate) managed by a blind trust.  Any liquidations after taking office must be handled by the trust.

5. Changes in House or Senate rules require two-thirds vote.

6. Contributions over $5K to federal candidates must be made through new independent blind trust.  The trust will be managed in a way that candidates do not know who gave them money. (The problem with contributions is not the money; it's the bribe/extortion dimension.  If candidates can't know the source they can't shake down people and people can't buy influence.)

 

Edited May 10, 2018 by TahoeHorn

[Parliament 14129]

Those are all great ideas, but not all are important enough to be a Constitutional Amendment.

 

I want a Balanced Budget Amendment and to get rid of the direct election of Senators.

 

 

 

 

[Herpa Derpa 6111]

Maybe it's just the Brisket in me, but I have my doubts this country will ever be able to amend the Constitution again.  Too much heavy lifting from the lazy populace required.

[TahoeHorn 107]

3 minutes ago, Herpa Derpa said:

Maybe it's just the Brisket in me, but I have my doubts this country will ever be able to amend the Constitution again.  Too much heavy lifting from the lazy populace required.

We won't adopt anything controversial, but we can adopt good governance provisions like the ones I've outlined if we do so before the problem they're designed to avoid arises.

[Anastasis 23393]

Balanced budget amendment.

Term limits. 

[TahoeHorn 107]

7.  Federal judges are appointed to a term of 20 years (not lifetime).

[Lagunamadre 1975]

The balanced budget amendment would really hamstring us the next time we have a recession/depression. Would never happen. 

[Brisketexan 104560]

Ban those awful mom shorts.

Make it a federal crime to serve warm fruit cobbler WITHOUT a scoop of vanilla.  Cobbler COMES WITH ICE CREAM.  IT'S PART OF THE DESSERT, GODDAMIT.

Jail time for going under the speed limit in the fast lane.

 

All of my proposals are meritorious, and all have a better chance of passing than any serious proposal above.  If we ever decide to try to amend the Constitution, Katie--bar-the-door.  If you think abuse of power and influence-peddlign is outta hand NOW, just wait.  You'll end up with a Wells Fargo amendment, and a Spectrum Cable amendment, and a "whichever political party is presently in power, let's shit all over voters and regions held by the other political party" amendment.  It would be an utter shitshow, and only bad would come from it.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

 

[Bullneck 18987]

4 hours ago, Herpa Derpa said:

Maybe it's just the Brisket in me, but I have my doubts this country will ever be able to amend the Constitution again.  Too much heavy lifting from the lazy populace required.

Whenever a see a big bridge being built somewhere I'm always surprised.  I think, "Damn, I didn't know we could do things like that anymore."

[David Dennison 18652]

30 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

Ima vote for you, Beto, but I do not support term limits. 

[DixonHur 11171]

Term limits

Eliminate automatic citizenship for being born in the US

[Jhawk 1075]

4 hours ago, Herpa Derpa said:

Maybe it's just the Brisket in me, but I have my doubts this country will ever be able to amend the Constitution again.  Too much heavy lifting from the lazy populace required.

This. Even if there was a 60% popular vote to amend the constitution for even 1 inane reason the elected officials would never allow it. Amending the constitution means giving up control. That isn’t exactly something our elected officials like to do. Thus, even the local officials it would take to call for a constitutional convention wouldn’t even be interested. 

Politicians don’t see running the country as a social duty. They see it as a game they can play where they pull the levers on peoples’ lives. The fact that term limits has never been seriously considered by the feds tells you everything you need to know. It’s like the NFLPA OR NBAPA they are lookin out for the best interest of themselves and the next group of elites. With their only commitment to the league (or country) being that they make sure it is around long enough to suck everything they want out of it. 

Edited May 11, 2018 by Jhawk

[CowboyFred 1151]

15 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Ima vote for you, Beto, but I do not support term limits. 

I'm going to vote for him too but term limits are needed.

[Blotto 23428]

If you are caught running a robocall phone operation, you receive the death penalty.

[Anastasis 23393]

Just now, Blotto said:

If you are caught running a robocall phone operation, you receive the death penalty.

Sorry, you cannot add any more reactions today.

• OK

[Anastasis 23393]

4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Ban those awful mom shorts.

Make it a federal crime to serve warm fruit cobbler WITHOUT a scoop of vanilla.  Cobbler COMES WITH ICE CREAM.  IT'S PART OF THE DESSERT, GODDAMIT.

Jail time for going under the speed limit in the fast lane.

 

All of my proposals are meritorious, and all have a better chance of passing than any serious proposal above.  If we ever decide to try to amend the Constitution, Katie--bar-the-door.  If you think abuse of power and influence-peddlign is outta hand NOW, just wait.  You'll end up with a Wells Fargo amendment, and a Spectrum Cable amendment, and a "whichever political party is presently in power, let's shit all over voters and regions held by the other political party" amendment.  It would be an utter shitshow, and only bad would come from it.

I give not two shits about the shorts on that broad. 

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4968]

I respect Beto for advocating for term limits, even if I don't trust him to follow through with it (I don't trust the other guy either, but at least Beto is talking about it). But honestly I don't think it can happen unless there is some concession granted to sweeten the deal for our current lawmakers. And that is the sad part. We don't have enough lawmakers willing to sacrifice their future for ours.  

[burntorangebongos 10681]

Term limits and outlawing PACs! Fuck yea!!!!

[Fudge Nuggets 19146]

Maximum voting age.  

[Whitman 694]

13 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Balanced budget amendment.

Term limits. 

I would now agree on both of these, and it's disappointing , because it shouldn't have to be.  Sadly,  people have shown it is needed (they won't reign in deficit spending during periods of growth) , and as seen on other levels of gov't, both work fine.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Whitman

[Whitman 694]

8 hours ago, Blotto said:

If you are caught running a robocall phone operation, you receive the death penalty.

This one pisses me the fuck off (we even get them here at the office phone all the time ).  Congress has an opportunity to fix something (at least make it better) and look good for once and I don't understand why they don't do it or at least try.  Any set of numbers robo-ing out 10's of thousands of calls a day should be looked at.  If it is a legitimate call center, fine, if not, fuck them up bigly.  There has to be a simple way to make life so difficult for these people that they will go away.

[Francisco 2.0 32318]

16 minutes ago, Whitman said:

This one pisses me the fuck off (we even get them here at the office phone all the time ).  Congress has an opportunity to fix something (at least make it better) and look good for once and I don't understand why they don't do it or at least try.  Any set of numbers robo-ing out 10's of thousands of calls a day should be looked at.  If it is a legitimate call center, fine, if not, fuck them up bigly.  There has to be a simple way to make life so difficult for these people that they will go away.

It's always a fun time to try to explain to people, mainly olds, that come into our office asking why they received a call from one of our listed numbers telling them that they have won a condo or a trip to Cancun.  

People's eyes glaze over when you attempt to educate about caller ID and number spoofing.

[SKJ 1305]

Que?

Term limits
Eliminate automatic citizenship for being born in the US

[Whitman 694]

2 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

It's always a fun time to try to explain to people, mainly olds, that come into our office asking why they received a call from one of our listed numbers telling them that they have won a condo or a trip to Cancun.  

People's eyes glaze over when you attempt to educate about caller ID and number spoofing.

We are getting spoofing moved over onto our cell phones now.  It will be a local number pop up (don't know if it is a client or not so have to answer), and damned if it isn't "Card Services", "Student Loan refi", "Windows Technical Support" or the trips to Cancun.

[Parliament 14129]

Is this the thread where we outlaw cargo shorts?

[RayDog 682]

From the original post setting the supreme court to 9 seats is a good one. To go with that I would give the senate a time limit (ex. 120 days) to vote on an appointment with perhaps a longer time frame for other federal judges.

Term limits, yes.

To cover gerrymandering require that states appoint a politically neutral body to set districts used for federal, state and local representation.

I am not a fan of a balanced budget amendment since we need the US to participate in bond markets at the federal level. Maybe a percentage of gdp cap instead.

 

[Huckleberry 32694]

Several good ideas in this thread.

Term limits is not one of them.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

15 hours ago, TahoeHorn said:

7.  Federal judges are appointed to a term of 20 years (not lifetime).

You still don't want judges who are looking for their next job while on the bench. Rather than a fixed term, I'd mandate a retirement age. 

I'm on board with the rest except for campaign donations. I'd ban them outright, and start a campaign finance pool.  Create strict advertising and debate guidelines to go with them, including banning attack ads from candidates and 3rd parties. 

[Anastasis 23393]

Several good ideas in this thread.

Term limits is not one of them.

Curious what your rationale is?

I think one of the better criticisms is that the constant cycling of ill informed legislators would put too much power in the hands of lobbyists.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

Just now, Anastasis said:

Curious what your rationale is?

I think one of the better criticisms is that the constant cycling of ill informed legislators would put too much power in the hands of lobbyists.

The bigger danger is that legislators will use their terms as a job interview for their next position.  Deliver something for Exxon while in Congress and they will have a job lined up for you when your term limit comes. Lobbyist money is bad enough as it is. With term limits, it will be orders of magnitude worse. What we really need to do is start holding incumbents accountable in elections. They are supposed to be the safeguard against corruption.

[Jack Burton 35]

Ban Scott Elder from radio/TV

[Fudge Nuggets 19146]

32 posts in and none of us came up with the obvious (myself included)

Revoke Oklahoma's statehood.

[Brisketexan 104560]

Maybe we just build a new Constitution around this...

Quote

"Well, I believe in the soul... the cock...the pussy... the small of a woman's back... the hangin' curveball... high fiber... good scotch... that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent overrated crap... I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a Constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.

 

[irockalltherocks 55]

Campaigns start 60 days before election day.

[wildcat09 29226]

2 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Several good ideas in this thread.

Term limits is not one of them.

Esto. Term limits are a quick way to guarantee that Washington is even more captured by lobbyists than it already is.

[High Plains Drifter 10970]

None.

 

The problems we have aren't going to be solved by some amendments. If we start dicking around with the Constitution in our current state of know-nothingness, we will fuck ourselves over even harder than we currently are. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

I'm officially undecided on term limits.

If we could get the money problem dealt with, there wouldn't be as much of a need of term limits.

Some states have instituted term limits in their legislatures and it hasn't exactly worked out well.  

[burntorangebongos 10681]

Maybe set the term limits for a longer period than Beto proposes. Allowing 2 and 6 year terms for 16 or 18 years. You will have experienced legislators but not those who stay so long that the power corrupts. I don't care who you are, it happens. Let's acknowledge that and rectify it.

 

 

[DixonHur 11171]

2 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

Esto. Term limits are a quick way to guarantee that Washington is even more captured by lobbyists than it already is.

This is a sad statement on the current state of affairs.  I'm not saying you're wrong, but it just shows how out of control the system of corruption is in Washington.

I think we need to find a way to ban lobbying, but I have no idea how.  It seems there's always a way around any law that could be put in place.

Edited May 11, 2018 by DixonHur

[Huckleberry 32694]

4 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Curious what your rationale is?

I think one of the better criticisms is that the constant cycling of ill informed legislators would put too much power in the hands of lobbyists.

That is one of the two main ones, the other being that it's an unproductive limit on citizens' free speech.

Term limits would prevent people from voting for whom they want to vote and would also make the special interests control the government more, not less.

[TahoeHorn 107]

16 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

That is one of the two main ones, the other being that it's an unproductive limit on citizens' free speech.

Term limits would prevent people from voting for whom they want to vote and would also make the special interests control the government more, not less.

This is my view.

I have a third reason.  The power struggles among the 435 Representatives would be even greater.

Today, when a Freshman shows up there are people there who decide what committees he will be on.  And he's low man on the totem pole in the committee.  I'm horrified to imagine a process like Boys State or Youth Legislature where everybody shows up thinking they're the Big Swinging Dick.  How would you form a Telecom Committee and pichk the Chairman?  What powers would the Chairman have?  the chaos would be unbelievable.  Add in that none of them would know how to spell telecom or if they did would have ties to special interests and you've got trouble with a capital T.  Anarchy.

Edited May 11, 2018 by TahoeHorn

[burntorangebongos 10681]

You can't ban lobbying and not all of it is unethical. There was a man who hired a lobbyist to try and make tax filing free and simple. He lost because turbo tax and H&R block spent more. His name is Joseph Bankman, a Standford law professor who helped create ReadyReturn that would take the headache out of filing. There are thousands more examples like him trying to use lobbying for good. It is the money that needs to be controlled to level the playing field. 

[hayden_horn 11360]

1 minute ago, burntorangebongos said:

You can't ban lobbying and not all of it is unethical. There was a man who hired a lobbyist to try and make tax filing free and simple. He lost because turbo tax and H&R block spent more. His name is Joseph Bankman, a Standford law professor who helped create ReadyReturn that would take the headache out of filing. There are thousands more examples like him trying to use lobbying for good. It is the money that needs to be controlled to level the playing field. 

exactly. it's the money. citizens united really fucked us in the long term in regard to campaign finance. i'm not sure how we unring that bell without an amendment at this point.