Our Constitution's Achilles Heel?

December 9, 2011

Dear Fellow Patriots -

The following e-mail was sent to Mr. Rick Newton of the Bartlett - Tri-County Tea Party group in Illinois. The change suggested to how we fund Federal Government expenditures is critical to the success of all the hard work done by many Tea Party people across the USA.

Mr. Rick Newton, Bartlett - Tri-County TEA

Dear Mr. Newton -

Being a man who strongly agrees with Tea Party principles the following statement is very difficult to make to you and your fellow Tea Party compatriots in Illinois.

With the current system of Federal Government finance, the complete failure of all the Tea Party efforts to save the USA is just a matter of time. Please let me explain why.

At the present time the Federal Government, through Congress, has unlimited, unchecked access to Americans income and wealth through (1) taxation, (2) borrowing, and (3) Federal Reserve Bank printing of money. (Article 1, Section 8 paragraphs 1, 2 and 5 of our Constitution and the 16th Amendment). This is the Constitution's Achilles Heel.

With this state of affairs about $300 billion goes into the U.S. Treasury every month. This $300 billion inflow goes on, and on and on. The money gets spent by a deeply entrenched spending industry centered in Washington, D.C. month-in and month-out, year-in and year-out.

We need a checkpoint gate through which money going to the Federal Government must flow to limit and control that flow.

Unless and until this checkpoint is put in place, none of the Tea Party efforts to shrink the Federal Government will in the end succeed because of the deeply entrenched spending industry.

Can I ask for your help in spreading the word about the CONSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT TAX (the CST, www.constitutionalsupporttax.net)? The CST will be the checkpoint needed to stop, STOP DEAD Federal overspending and deficits.

No other reform of the national tax system that is "on the table" (the FairTax, various flat tax proposals, 999, etc.) puts in place the much needed checkpoint.

In summary, the CST has four parts:

1. The power to levy Taxes, Imposts and Excises Congress currently has would be repealed from Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 1 of the Constitution, along with the 16th Amendment.

2. Paragraph 2, giving Congress power to borrow money would also be repealed.

3. Once Congress sets the Federal Budget each year, the Budget will be divided among the States by a formula that is fair to all States. This five-part formula is explained on the website in the HOW IT WORKS section.

4. At the State level, the people and State officials would decide how to pay their State's mandatory share of the Budget.

By using the States as a critical checkpoint on the flow of money into "the Feds" coffers, We the People will have much greater control over the Federal Government. Please see details of how the CST will work on the website, www.constitutionalsupporttax.net. Political pressure point 4 of 8 toward the end of the website is key to reining in Federal expansionism.

I would much appreciate it if you would let me know your thoughts after you have a chance to read and "mentally digest" the website information.

In its September 15, 2011 issue, the Hillsdale College Collegian carried a Letter to the Editor on the CST that is an abbreviated version of what follows my contact information. Other Letters to the Editor on the CST have been submitted to and published in various Michigan newspapers.

Thank you for your time and for considering support of the CST.

Cy Mallinson 1311 Manor St. Kalamazoo, MI 49006-2143 269-342-0410 cmallinson@aol.com

An abbreviated version of the following e-mail was published as a Letter to the Editor in the September 15, 2011 Hillsdale College Collegian.

Dear Constitutionally Knowledgeable Hillsdale College Community:

The purpose of this letter is to introduce you to the CONSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT TAX (the CST.) But first, a few introductory comments are in order.

The President signing the Budget Control Act of 2011 on August 3rd simply ended one round of a perpetual prizefight over the size, scope and intrusiveness of the Federal Government in America's life.

Unfortunately, we classic liberal Constitutionalists have been loosing rounds of this fight for years.

Why has the Federal Government had an ever-growing debt since early in the 20th Century?

The actions of the self-deemed "Progressives" over the past 100+ years to shred the Constitution by working to expand the Federal Government are clear. These actions have been an essential part in creating the ever-growing debt.

However, a few questions. Is there something deeper, possibly readily visible, but simply "missed" by we Constitutionalists that is empowering the Progressives? And if so, what is this "something deeper"? Can steps be taken to change the situation to greatly restrict, if not end, the power of the Progressives to continually grow the Federal Government? If so, what steps?

The answers to the these questions follow and are actually quite simple. And yes, there is a readily visible something deeper that we missed. Sad to say, this missed something is contained in the Constitution we hold in such high regard, and could be called its Achilles Heel. What is this Achilles Heel?

Three paragraphs in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and the 16th Amendment give Congress monopoly control over Federal Government finance, and incredibly easy access to money. These four are:

(1) Paragraph One. "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises...."

(2) Paragraph Two. Congress having the power "To borrow money on the credit of the United States;"

(3) Paragraph Five. Congressional power "To coin money, and regulate the Value thereof; ...." (This power has effectively been ceded to the Federal Reserve.)

(4) The 16th Amendment which provided Constitutional authorization for the Revenue Act of 1913 that implemented the Income Tax.

These four serve as the Constitution's Achilles Heel. They have permitted the Progressives (renamed Regressives by Michigan Congressman Thaddeus McCotter in a speech at the Iowa State Fair in August 2011) to push forward at full speed to expand Federal Government involvement in every phase of American life. Easy, multiple-source access to MONEY, under the "supreme Law of the Land," enables the Progressives to hold their whole ever-growing house-of-cards Federal expansionism plan together.

With the passage of time, many people, unfortunately including many of we 21st Century conservatives, have simply accepted this Congressional monopoly control as the paradigm, particularly with respect to the Federal Government having the power to tax.

We rarely, if ever, think of this monopoly control of money as being the "nerve center" of Federal expansionism. Thousands of spending interests (many very left-leaning) have deeply root themselves in the taxpayer's pocketbooks. They "chomp at the bit" to get evermore money.

As a companion matter, the stage gets set for the spread governmental control to matters as basic as the light bulbs we buy.

This problem has not been just recently identified. In many places the Anti-Federalist Papers state or strongly allude to the dangers of what could happen if the government offered by the then proposed Constitution got out of hand. (Particularly Anti-Federalist Paper Brutus V published December 13, 1787, that focuses on taxation. It can be easily found online using the Anti-Federalist Paper Brutus V title. Reading a selection of Anti-Federalist Papers gives a chilling picture of how the fears of the writers have in fact "played out" in the Federal Government of 2011, although not exactly as the writers suggested they might.)

Being in the early 21st Century, not the late 18th, what correcting steps can we take?

The CONSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT TAX (the CST) is designed to end this monopoly control problem permanently. With the CST in place the Federal expansionism superstructure will, for all practical purposes, collapse.

In summary, the CST has four parts:

1. The power to levy Taxes, Imposts and Excises Congress currently has would be repealed from Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 1 of the Constitution, along with the 16th Amendment.

2. Paragraph 2, giving Congress power to borrow money would also be repealed.

3. Once Congress sets the Federal Budget each year, the Budget will be divided among the States by a formula that is fair to all States. This five-part formula is explained on the website.

4. At the State level, the people and State officials would decide how to pay their State's mandatory share of the Budget.

A free society will not long exist if it constantly has a Soviet-style, command-and-control mechanism forced on it from errant political forces. Why should Americans continue to endure such a mechanism?

Also, please see the "two broad principles" of government in the introduction to Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman.

The CST will be a valuable tool for maintaining far-closer compliance with Friedman's two broad principles than our current system of Federal Government finance.

Thank you for your time

Tags: Debt, Deficit, Deficits, Ending, Federal, Limiting, Power, Reform, Tax, overspending, More…spending

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Comment by Cyrus J. Mallinson on January 5, 2012 at 11:18am: Government money as close to home as possible. (Please re-read PRESSURE POINT 4 of 8 on the CST website). Congressmen and Senators who want to be re-elected are going to be loath to start a fight with this Army

State and local officials and the People are not going want to surrender money to the Federal Government that goes beyond what a true reading of the Constitution will allow. Congress will only have power to raise money through tariffs, limited user fees, and royalties on natural resources development on Federal land. See the website for details.

Now to the "No"side of the issue. The CST does not specifically dissolve the EPA, Department of Education or any other bureau or department of the Federal Government. However, since it will be so much harder for the Federal Government to get money under the CST, the onus will be on the Government itself to reinvent itself into a much leaner operation.

William, I want to address a few more matters. Let me do so in a future e-mail.

Thanks, Cy.

Comment by Cyrus J. Mallinson on January 5, 2012 at 11:14am

Hi William – 010412

Thanks for your return comment on my "Our Constitution’s Achilles Heel?" TPN posting and Blog.

In summary, the CST has four parts: ((The CONSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT TAX (the CST,

www.constitutionalsupporttax.net. website)). More details are also on the Blog.

In summary, the CST has four parts:

The power to levy Taxes, Imposts and Excises Congress currently has would be repealed from Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 1 of the Constitution, along with the 16th Amendment.
Paragraph 2, giving Congress power to borrow money would also be repealed.
Once Congress sets the Federal Budget each year, the Budget will be divided among the States by a formula that is fair to all States. This five-part formula is explained on the website in the HOW IT WORKS section.
At the State level, the people and State officials would decide how to pay their State's mandatory share of the Budget.

You open your comments with the statement "This appears to me to be a round about way to go about this."

When you use the word "this" at the end of the sentence, I think you mean that the CST is a "round about way" to cut back on the size of the Federal Government. If that is what you are suggesting, the answer is yes and no. Let me address both the yes and the no.

But before addressing the yes and no, to effectively cut back on the size of the Federal Government, it is first necessary to understand the opposition we face to achieving this government-size cutback.

Dealing with the opposition to cutting back the Federal Government can be illustrated with a dry sponge. An uncontrolled drip, drip, drip of water on the sponge (the Federal Government) will eventually result in the sponge being completely soaked. If you want to set and maintain the amount of water the sponge is getting, you first need to get control of the water’s "drip rate".

For the past nearly 120 years, the so-called "Progressive" Movement has used the unlimited nature of Article I, Section 8, Paragraphs 1(taxation) & 2 (borrowing) of the Constitution, and the 16^th Amendment, to create a far higher "drip rate" (of MONEY) into the government sponge than the taxpayers want.

If the water (an uncontrolled MONEY flow from taxation and borrowing) continues to drip onto the sponge, you will never be able to keep the sponge at the "moisture level" (the amount of money the Federal Government has to spend) at a level more acceptable to the People.

Now the problem is that the "Progressives," and the multiple spending interests tangled up with them, for all practical purposes, have total control of the Federal Government. Money, and the extremely easy access to money through Article I, Section 8, Paragraphs 1, 2, 5 and the 16^th Amendment have been used by the Progressives to keep the sponge in a large pail of water. At this point, again for all practical purposes, the taxpayers have no way to pull the sponge out of the pail and wring it out. The CST will empower the People to have much more control over the flow of water (i.e., money) into the government sponge.

But back to explaining the yes and no.

Yes, the CST is a round about way to cut the size of the Federal Government. It does this by forcing Congress to be sober and serious about designing a Budget that is "salable" to the States. Under the CST Congress will have the power to say to the States "Look States, here is the Budget we have set. Here is the formula by which you divide it among yourselves (the five-part formula on the CST website). Now pay it!" HOWEVER, there will be an "Army" of state and local officials and the People across the USA who will want to keep as much former Federal Government money as close to home as possible. (Please re-read PRESS

Comment by William Eugene on January 4, 2012 at 3:00am: (1) Paragraph One. "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises...."

(2) Paragraph Two. Congress having the power "To borrow money on the credit of the United States;"

(3) Paragraph Five. Congressional power "To coin money, and regulate the Value thereof; ...." (This power has effectively been ceded to the Federal Reserve.)

(4) The 16th Amendment which provided Constitutional authorization for the Revenue Act of 1913 that implemented the Income Tax.

This appears to me to be a round about way to go about this.

(1) includes the power but not the purpose for WHICH they may tax, being to pay debt, and provide for the welling being and protection of the Country. Stop and get rid of all Unconstitutional agencies, SS,FDA.EPA.etc, which have no source in the Constitution.

(2) if we make them obey the Constitution as written there will be no NEED to borrow.

(3) Congress can not delegate thier power to another branch of government, who can believe they can cede it to a private bank..........wait school and media tell us it IS a government agency.

(4) The 16th provides Constitutional authority to tax Federal, state and municipal bonds. It gave no new powers period. Your earned income never was and still is not taxable by the code today. Congress says so. Here it is a bit on it I put together. www.lojack12.com/Constitution/16th amendment.html Peace.