A Plan to Renew the Promise of American Life
previous plank | summary | contents | intro | next plank
One-Page Summary of All Recommendations
Plank 1. Ensure ballot integrity
1.1. To safeguard the sanctity of the ballot: 1) permit only citizens of the United States to vote in state, local, and federal elections, 2) require a valid form of identification for in-person voting and require all absentee and online ballots to be notarized or reliably verified, 3) require state and local governments to keep their voter lists current and cleaned up on a continuous basis and penalize those who fail to do so, and encourage states to join an interstate compact for sharing voter-registration information on an instantaneous, real-time basis, 4) prohibit unsolicited vote-by-mail schemes, 5) prohibit and punish ballot-harvesting and the fraudulent production and bundling of mail-in and absentee ballots, 6) prohibit the use of unmonitored drop-boxes, 7) prohibit election-day registration unless it is at least as fraud-proof as pre-election registration, and 8) prohibit private funding of elections.
1.2. To safeguard ballot secrecy, and to maximize voters’ confidence in election results, require the use of paper ballots in all cases, employing machines only for counting paper ballots. In all cases, permit voters to photograph or otherwise retain a copy of their completed ballot for future reference. To prevent ballot-stuffing, canvass and count all early and absentee votes prior to the start of election day voting. Canvass and count ballots in the presence of independent observers. Eschew machine and online voting, but in cases where such means are used, make the contents of each ballot non-anonymous and readily and permanently viewable by the public.
1.3. To ensure a reasonable simultaneity of voting, require all votes to be counted by the end of voting on election day, with no exceptions. Do not for any reason count any votes received after the close of election day voting. Restrict early-voting periods to no more than, say, the ten calendar days immediately prior to election day, with a mandatory pause of, say, three days prior to election day, to ensure that all early votes are counted before the start of election-day voting. To reduce gaming and coercion, do not allow ballots to be ‘corrected’ once validly cast.
1.4. To encourage voters to do their duty voluntarily, publish the fact of whether a voter has voted in a given election, in real time, as soon as he or she has completed the voting process. Do this without revealing how he or she voted except when the vote was cast using a machine with no paper record. Do not make voting mandatory. Offer a symbolic ‘none of the above’ option in all cases, so voters can register dissatisfaction with the question without preventing a decision.
1.5. To restore voter sovereignty and the benefits of healthy political-party competition: 1) abolish open primaries and such anti-partisan voting schemes as blanket, nonpartisan, and jungle primaries and top-X-number-of-candidates elections, 2) safeguard the right of parties to make their own rules for choosing nominees, 3) protect the right of parties to hold closed primaries (open only to declared party members) and to hold conventions or caucuses instead of primaries, and 4) allow only declared party members (as defined by the party, not the government) to vote on internal party matters. To make it easier for voters to send specific policy signals to the two major parties, make it reasonably easy for serious minor parties to secure a place on the ballot, and allow candidates to run on multiple party lines simultaneously (that is, allow ballot freedom or fusion voting, but do not use dual labeling). In doing these things, always strictly enforce the civil rights of all citizens.
1.6. To ensure that voters choose their representatives and not the reverse, take all reasonable steps to minimize the evils of political gerrymandering. For example, have truly independent nonpartisan commissions — chosen by lot — draw legislative district lines after each census, guided by the simple rule, ‘Districts shall consist of compact and contiguous territory, simple in shape and nearly equal in population, and where feasible without division of existing political units, such as counties, cities, towns, and villages.’ Do not stack such commissions for partisan or demographic ‘balance.’ Limit the role of judges in redistricting disputes to disallowing maps that do not conform to the above rule. Do not allow judges to initiate or revise a voting-district map.
1.7 To promote political tranquillity, reasonably encourage the partition and subdivision of states and counties, so there are more of them, taking care to keep such changes lawful and mutually consensual among the parties directly concerned.
1.8. To keep senators and representatives dependent on their constituents, reject proportional representation schemes at all levels. Stick with single-member geographic districts.
1.9. To bring representatives closer to the people, at the state and federal levels, reasonably maximize the number of districts in the more populous chamber and adjust their boundaries regularly to ensure ‘one person, one vote.’ At the federal level, do this by adopting the so-called Wyoming Rule, whereby no congressional district may be more populous than the least-populous state. (Implementing this rule today would bring the total number of U.S. House seats to around 575.) To ensure the two chambers of a legislature effectively check each other, maximize their size difference. Eschew unicameralism.
1.10. To prevent a few populous states and cities from dominating presidential elections, preserve the Electoral College and reject such misguided schemes as the so-called National Popular Vote Compact.
1.11. To make senators and representatives more productive, compensate them on a per diem rather than a salaried basis, paying them only for days actually worked, and permit them to vote remotely at, say, half-pay from a district office or their state’s capitol building. Prohibit proxy voting in Congress.
1.12. To encourage wiser deliberation in lawmaking, avoid plebiscites and end such ‘direct democracy’ reforms as initiative, referendum, and recall. Especially eschew ‘citizen-initiated’ constitutional amendments. Instead, leave the job of proposing state constitutional amendments, and all merely legislative, policy, and personnel questions, to the people’s elected representatives. To ensure a salutary stability in the law, require that state constitutional changes receive the assent of a supermajority of voters in a regularly scheduled general election (or alternatively, a simple majority in more than one successive election).
1.13. To diminish political corruption, abandon the hopeless goal of ‘getting money out of politics’ and instead dramatically shrink the size and scope of government, especially the federal government, and restore strict constitutional limits on government power — the only reforms that can even hope to actually reduce corruption and the influence of money-in-politics. Repeal all existing campaign-finance laws, except those prohibiting contributions by foreigners, and leave it primarily to states to regulate the conduct of election campaigns according to common sense, as the Founders intended.
1.14. Interfere in the states’ conduct of state and federal elections, via federal legislation, when clearly necessary to protect civil rights, safeguard ballot integrity, and preserve a republican form of government.
Plank 2. Restore consent-based citizenship
2.1. On a prospective basis, restore the Constitution’s default policy of consent-based, rather than birthplace, citizenship (or to put it in legal terms, go back to jus sanguinis rather than jus soli as the default policy, employing jus soli in select cases as an administrative convenience). In practical terms: 1) grant United States citizenship automatically to each of the following descriptions of person, but only to them: i) the natural child of a U.S. citizen, whether born on U.S. soil or abroad, and ii) the natural child, born on U.S. soil, of a non-citizen who is a permanent resident alien or who is serving on active duty in the U.S. armed forces; and 2) cease granting automatic U.S. citizenship to the child of a sojourner or unauthorized entrant, regardless of where the child is born. Effectuate this policy prospectively, without depriving any existing citizen of his or her citizenship, and do it by statute (and to the extent possible by executive order) or as a last resort by constitutional amendment.
2.2. End dual citizenship, which should be anathema in a republic. Automatically withdraw U.S. citizenship from any person found to hold foreign citizenship, if the person, after a reasonable grace period, has not relinquished that citizenship. But do not penalize those who, for whatever reason, voluntarily renounce their U.S. citizenship.
2.3. Reform U.S. immigration laws to secure the borders, protect national security and the public health, and improve the quality of authorized immigration. Specifically, 1) maximize legal immigration by persons who are likely to assimilate and who can offer useful talents, skills, or backgrounds, 2) halt or greatly reduce immigration by any class of persons who are unlikely to assimilate or whose presence in large numbers would disturb our nation’s social, political, or economic tranquillity (including, when necessary, by reducing immigration from entire countries or regions), and 3) stop impressing employers into the service of our immigration agencies. Instead, 4) intercept, detain, and promptly deport unauthorized border crossers and visa overstayers, 5) build and maintain effective physical barriers to prevent unauthorized border crossings, 6) require temporary visitors to check in with immigration agencies on a regular basis, and 7) indefinitely exclude or detain persons claiming political asylum or refugee status until their claims are finally resolved. In doing these things, take care to safeguard the mental and physical well-being of detainees, especially children.
Plank 3. End judicial usurpation
3.1. Appoint to the bench only principled originalists with an ample paper trail. No stealth candidates.
3.2. Give principled originalists a majority on every federal court, including the Supreme Court, preferably through appointment but if necessary by altering the number of seats.
3.3. To diminish the reach of rogue appellate courts, increase the number of federal circuits.
3.4. To rein in rogue judges, judiciously alter the jurisdiction and powers of the federal judiciary, for example, by stripping lower courts of jurisdiction in sensitive areas and eliminating ‘national’ injunctions.
3.5. To limit the damage caused by erroneous judicial rulings, and to give courts more opportunities to reverse them, minimize the use of stare decisis and aggressively employ such traditional tools of equitable interpretation as narrow construction, avoiding, distinguishing, overruling, and reversing.
3.6. Avoid the trap of ‘judicial restraint.’ Always put the Constitution first. In judging avoid a blind deference to legislative majorities.
3.7. If the foregoing reforms prove insufficient to end the judicial usurpation of democracy, amend the Constitution, as a reluctant last resort, to improve the judges’ incentives. Specifically, provide that henceforth justices of the Supreme Court will be appointed not by the president but by the states, with each state filling one seat and no justice serving more than, say, twelve years. Have the governor nominate and the state senate confirm or reject as happens at the federal level now.
Plank 4. Abolish income taxation
4.1. Tax consumption, not production — goods, not people.
4.2. Abolish all forms of income taxation, initially by statute and as soon as practicable thereafter by constitutional amendment. Specifically, abolish all taxes on personal and corporate income, wages, salaries, gifts, estates, pensions, annuities, profits, receipts, rents, royalties, interest, dividends, and capital gains, and all taxes on trades, professions, and occupations.
4.3. Do not keep a payroll tax in place, lest it become a taproot for an income tax to reappear. If possible, eliminate income and payroll tax rates simultaneously. If forced to choose, eliminate payroll taxes first.
4.4. Fund spending programs, including Social Security and Medicare, entirely from general revenues rather than payroll taxes.
4.5. When reducing taxes, prioritize rate reduction over loophole closure and always reduce the top rate first.
Plank 5. Rely on duties and excises
5.1. In lieu of income taxation, fund the federal government exclusively with duties and excises, with a little help from user fees and land sales. Prefer this approach over such attractive but flawed proposals as a flat tax, value-added tax, or national retail sales tax.
Plank 6. Restore honest money
6.1. To secure the blessings of economic health and fiscal common sense, restore honest, constitutional money and popular control of the money supply through an enlightened system of free banking, free minting, and free choice of currency.
6.2. Scrupulously adhere to the Constitution’s five monetary rules: 1) The basic unit is the dollar, a silver coin containing 371.25 grains of pure silver. 2) Only gold or silver coins and currency (specie-backed banknotes) can be legal tender. 3) No state may issue coins or currency. 4) No one may counterfeit U.S. Government-issued coins or currency. 5) Neither the states nor Congress may issue fiat money notes (‘bills of credit’).
6.3. Allow gold and silver coins and currency to resume their natural role as money. Re-monetize specie and specie-backed banknotes, regardless of issuer or denomination, as follows: 1) lift all restrictions on private ownership of them, 2) abolish all taxes and penalties on them, 3) permit them to serve as legal tender for all private debts and all public charges, taxes, and dues, 4) restore the enforceability of gold-clause contracts, 5) restore the automatic convertibility of specie coins into specie-backed banknotes and vice versa at the Treasury, and 6) resume the issuance of constitutional money (i.e., United States Government-issued gold and silver coins and currency as defined in the Coinage Act of 1792).
6.4. Over a period of years, gently remove fiat money (including Federal Reserve Notes and base-metal coins) from circulation, replacing it with honest, constitutional money in a non-disruptive manner.
6.5. Permit the free exchange of bullion and specie for constitutional money at the Treasury on demand.
6.6. Allow any bank, not just a privileged central bank or the Treasury, to issue notes, backed by specie or other assets, that may lawfully circulate as currency.
6.7. Uphold the right of private parties, in face-to-face transactions, to use physical money (legal-tender coins and currency) rather than digital or checkbook money. Reject the idea of a ‘cashless’ society.
6.8. To keep the coinage honest, mark all United States Government-issued gold and silver coins to show the coin’s actual precious-metal content, both in terms of weight in troy ounces and purity in parts per thousand.
6.9. When necessary, amend the Coinage Act to adjust the precious-metal content of United States gold coins, in order to keep both gold and silver in continuous circulation (counteract Gresham’s Law).
6.10. Promote free competition between banks. Make market entry easy, allow branch banking, and permit fractional reserve banking. Never provide taxpayer guarantees to banks, nor bailouts of overextended banks. Keep the bankruptcy laws just as between creditors and debtors. To reduce moral hazard, phase out government deposit insurance.
6.11. Transform the quasi private Federal Reserve System into a fully public independent treasury system, similar to the one that existed and worked quite well from 1846 to 1914. Restore to the Treasury Department the Fed’s current functions as federal fiscal agent, lender of last resort, and national bank regulator.
6.12. Overturn, by statutory and judicial means, the mischievous doctrines of the Legal Tender and Gold Clause Cases, which erroneously attribute to the U.S. Government ‘plenary’ economic powers alleged to be ‘inherent’ in national sovereignty, but which are in fact antithetical to the constitutional text and to the spirit of free republican government.
Plank 7. Limit debt
7.1. Return to the pre-1917 congressional practice of fully financing each new spending bill within its own text through spending cuts and tax hikes (pay-as-you-go) and/or ad hoc debt authorizations (borrow-as-you-go). This will reduce overall spending. It will also eliminate the need for legislative brinkmanship over whether to raise the statutory debt ceiling.
7.2. Establish, by constitutional amendment, an enforceable cap on total federal debt, defined in terms of a specific number of dollars. The amendment or amendments should do all of the following: 1) permit no federal spending beyond current receipts, except for amounts borrowed in strict conformity with the amendment, 2) provide that authorization for any borrowing above the debt cap requires the approval of a majority of the state legislatures in states representing a majority of the citizens of the United States, 3) enforce the cap with presidential sequesters and impoundments, 4) define the term ‘dollar’ explicitly, in an airtight way, so that the amendment cannot be evaded through redefinition (preferably just by reiterating the existing, implicit definition), and 5) punish any breach of the cap with strong, credible penalties for the federal officials responsible for the breach. A model for such an amendment is the Do Your Job Amendment.
7.3. If Congress refuses to originate the debt limitation amendment, originate it via the states through an Article V convention of states.
Plank 8. Freeze peacetime spending
8.1. Generate routine, modest federal budget surpluses by means of a comprehensive spending freeze enforced by means of automatic sequesters and presidential impoundments of unspent funds.
8.2. Establish a statutory cap on total federal peacetime expenditures, defined initially as a share of gross domestic product, and then, after the restoration of honest, constitutional money, as a specific number of dollars. Allow emergency spending above the cap only for a declared war.
8.3. Offset spending increases, and tax cuts, with spending cuts of equal or greater value.
8.4. Offset tax hikes with tax cuts of equal or greater value. Only increase overall tax receipts when trading up (for example, when replacing a production tax with a consumption tax) or in a true emergency like a declared war.
8.5. To make federal spending more manageable, convert the form of spending, wherever possible, from permanent to annual (in budget jargon, from ‘mandatory’ to ‘discretionary’ appropriations).
8.6. To reduce unproductive friction in the appropriation process, automatically renew each annual appropriations bill at the end of the fiscal year at, say, 99.9 percent of the previous year’s level.
8.7. Devote surpluses to devolution, debt reduction, and tax relief — never to net spending hikes.
Plank 9. Devolve unconstitutional spending
9.1. Review all 2,200 federal departments, agencies, programs, and activities, to determine whether each is constitutionally authorized and best carried out by the federal government, as opposed to the states or private actors.
9.2. Eliminate or devolve every federal department, agency, program, function, and activity that is not constitutional, necessary, affordable, and moral.
9.3. With respect to any federal spending program that cannot be justified, follow a basic strategy of block-and-devolve, according to the following formula: If it cannot be justified, eliminate it. If it cannot be eliminated, devolve it. If it cannot be devolved, block-grant it. If it cannot be block-granted, reform it to make it block-grantable, and then block-grant it. And then, as soon as possible, devolve it. (In the case of state-federal collaborative programs like Medicaid, it may be necessary to first make the program all-federal before devolving it.)
9.4. Eliminate or devolve to the states all special preferences, welfare, and grants-in-aid, and all income-support programs not associated with federal employment. Means-test Social Security (and amend the Constitution to make Social Security lawful and ensure it does not bankrupt the government).
9.5. While welfare programs remain in the federal portfolio, adopt such commonsense safeguards as means-testing, time limits, anti-double-dipping rules, anti-fraud protections, and lock-out periods for non-compliance with program rules. Where necessary, use wait lists. But don’t make a fetish of work requirements, which are hard to enforce and tend to become riddled with self-defeating loopholes. Regard all such safeguards as band-aids and not as substitutes for devolution.
9.6. As a matter of principle, make participation in all federal welfare, health insurance, and income-support programs optional for individuals. For example, eliminate the individual mandate penalties in Obamacare and Medicare. In the same spirit, soften the late-enrollment penalties in Medicare Part B and Part D. And do not impose such mandates or penalties under other guises.
9.7. In the area of narcotics control, devolve federal expenditures and activities to the separate states and terminate the federal drug war, which, like alcohol Prohibition, has indisputably failed and done more harm than good, to individuals and society alike. Amend federal drug control laws and treaty commitments as necessary to effectuate a return to federalism and common sense.
Plank 10. Shrink the cabinet
10.1. Reduce the number of federal cabinet-level departments from fifteen to no more than, say, seven or eight.
10.2. Dramatically shrink the federal workforce.
10.3. Place every agency of an executive character under a cabinet secretary who reports directly to the president. No exceptions.
10.4. Bring the Presidential Succession Act into line with the Constitution, and avert a possible constitutional crisis, by removing from the line of succession the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tem.
Plank 11. Make independent agencies accountable
11.1. Amend the organic statutes of all executive-branch agencies, including so-called independent agencies, to bring their missions and powers into strict conformity with the Constitution.
11.2. Make all ‘heads of departments,’ that is, all politically appointed leaders of executive-branch agencies, including the chairmen and members of all boards and commissions, ultimately answerable to the president and removable by him at any time without cause.
11.3. Amend the Constitution to provide that a majority of the state legislatures may repeal any federal law or regulation except a state admission act.
Plank 12. Sell unneeded federal land
12.1. Dispose of all non-precious federal land that is not needed for constitutional purposes immediately by giving or selling it to the states or to the private sector without strings. Deem all other national land holdings that are not needed for constitutional purposes as precious and continue to protect them from human damage and harmful commercial development. Lease these precious lands to the states to manage under federal rules and supervision for a period not to exceed, say, 99 years. During the lease period, propose and submit to the states a constitutional amendment granting Congress an enumerated power to create and maintain, within a state and without its consent, national parks, national forests, recreation areas, wildlife refuges, grasslands, and so on. But include in the amendment a hard cap on the total size of the federal land portfolio (say, a limit of no more than 10 percent of the surface area of the United States excluding territories and no more than 10 percent of any one state without the consent of that state). At the end of the lease period, if the proposed amendment has not been ratified, assume that the American people trust the states to manage these treasures and deed them over to the states without strings.
Plank 13. Grant territories statehood or independence
13.1. Bring our practice into line with our founding principles by ending the era of U.S. colonialism. Do so in an orderly way by a date certain. Specifically, announce a sunset date for the current political status of all U.S. territories, including the five permanent territories, which are the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Before the deadline, grant statehood to any willing territory, if it opts for statehood, according to the normal constitutional procedure. After the deadline, declare any remaining permanently inhabited U.S. territory to be independent of the United States of America and extend a time-limited offer to enter into a compact of free association. Soon after the sunset date, fold any remaining territory or waters not granted statehood or independence into the nearest U.S. state.
13.2. Grant statehood to the District of Columbia by way of a constitutional amendment, leaving a small area for the permanent seat of government, inside the boundaries of which no person may have permanent residency status. If it’s found necessary to preserve the partisan balance in the Senate, wait to formally admit the new state until there is another state seeking admission and bring them in together under a paired-admission plan.
13.3. Renounce unnecessary U.S. land and economic claims and amicably adjust boundaries to ensure peace and harmony with all our neighbors.
13.4. Reduce the U.S. global footprint. Limit the number of overseas U.S. military bases and garrisons to the minimum necessary to meet our genuine defense needs.
Plank 14. Update our public calendar and currency
14.1. To increase voter turnout, hold federal elections on the second Monday in May instead of the first week of November and make Election Day a federal holiday.
14.2. Convene Congress on June 1st instead of January 3rd (which will eliminate congressional lame-duck sessions) and inaugurate the president on July 1st instead of January 20th (which will shorten presidential transitions).
14.3. To simplify federal budgeting, begin the federal fiscal year on January 1st instead of October 1st.
14.4. End Daylight Savings Time.
14.5. Update the ten federal holidays, and the images on United States coins and currency, to celebrate American principles and achievements.
Revised: April 27, 2024.
Published: June 21, 2013.
Author: Dean Clancy.
previous plank | summary | contents | intro | next plank