The Case For A Federalism Amendment

I don't know much about this, but it seems like a fantastic idea to me:

There is an excellent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Georgetown University School of Law's Randy Barnett. Barnett rightfully links the tea parties that took place all over the country last week to the massive expansion of the federal powers:

In response to an unprecedented expansion of federal power, citizens have held hundreds of "tea party" rallies around the country, and various states are considering "sovereignty resolutions" invoking the Constitution's Ninth and Tenth Amendments. For example, Michigan's proposal urges "the federal government to halt its practice of imposing mandates upon the states for purposes not enumerated by the Constitution of the United States.

States, he explains, are not powerless:

But state legislatures have a real power under the Constitution by which to resist the growth of federal power: They can petition Congress for a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution.

Article V provides that, "on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states," Congress "shall call a convention for proposing amendments." Before becoming law, any amendments produced by such a convention would then need to be ratified by three-quarters of the states.

Then, he details a series of amendment to restore a stronger federalism. Here is one:

One simple proposal would be to repeal the 16th Amendment enacted in 1913 that authorized a federal income tax. This single change would strike at the heart of unlimited federal power and end the costly and intrusive tax code. Congress could then replace the income tax with a "uniform" national sales or "excise" tax (as stated in Article I, section 8) that would be paid by everyone residing in the country as they consumed, and would automatically render savings and capital appreciation free of tax. There is precedent for repealing an amendment. In 1933, the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment that had empowered Congress to prohibit the sale of alcohol.

Read the whole thing here.

Your thoughts?

On a related note, Rep. John Shadegg has proposed a bill (H.R. 450, the Enumerated Powers Act) that would force every piece of legislation to cite the specific section of the Constitution that authorizes that legislation.  I'd suggest contacting your Rep to see if he or she is a co-sponsor of this bill, and to encourage them to become one if they are not already.

It would do us all a whole lotta' good to start relying on the Constitution again, don't you think?  It served us well for a couple hundred years, so why would we chuck it now?

There's my two cents.