The Liberty Amendment as of 9/13
Individual
liberty, freedom and sovereignty of the people will be restored in a
representative republican form of government by clarifying the original spirit
and intent of the Constitution. The Liberty Amendment will give back to
the Constitution its full force and effect in limiting the powers and
activities of the Federal Government and restoring those powers reserved to the
States and to the people. The Liberty Amendment, proposed, could become the
28th Amendment to the Constitution.
Text of the proposed Liberty
Amendment
Section 1. The Government of the United
States shall not engage in any business, professional, commercial, financial
or industrial enterprise except as specified in the Constitution.
Section 2. The constitution or laws of any
State, or the laws of the United States shall not be subject to the terms of
any foreign or domestic agreement which would abrogate this amendment.
Section 3. The activities of the United
States Government which violate the intent and purpose of this amendment
shall, within a period of three years from the date of the ratification of
this amendment, be liquidated and the properties and facilities affected
shall be sold.
Section 4. Three years after the
ratification of this amendment the sixteenth article of amendments to the
Constitution of the United States shall stand repealed and thereafter
Congress shall not levy taxes on personal incomes, estates, and/or gifts. |
The
Liberty Amendment states that the Federal Government shall not operate
business-type activities unless they are specifically authorized by the
Constitution.
It
provides a three-year period for selling or liquidating more than 900 agencies
and business-type enterprises presently operated by the Federal Government without
constitutional authority. Sale of these enterprises will bring in enough money
to substantially reduce the national debt. Annual budget spending by the
government could be reduced by more than fifty percent. Revenue from excise
taxes on goods and services, and on corporation incomes, will increase at least
twenty percent, without increase of tax rates.
This
means that the annual revenue collected from the Federal Personal Income and
Withholding Tax, the Federal Estate Tax, and the Federal Gift tax, will not be
needed. So the Liberty Amendment will stop these three types of taxes, at the
end of the three-year period
Current
status
· There are
currently nine States which have already endorsed the Liberty Amendment.
These States and the year in which they endorsed the Amendment are:
Wyoming ('59) • Nevada ('60) • Texas ('60) • Louisiana ('60) • Georgia
('62) • South Carolina ('62) • Mississippi ('82) • Arizona ('82) • Indiana
('82)
- On April 30, 2009 the
Hon. Ron Paul of Texas introduced the Liberty Amendment into the
House of Representatives, as House Joint Resolution 48:
Proposing an amendment the Constitution of the United States relative to
abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the United
States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens.
The
purpose of the Liberty Amendment
The
purpose of this Amendment is to give full force and effect to the Constitution
of the United States; to restore freedom and lost liberties to all Americans;
and to restore sovereignty to the United States of America, the States and the
body of the People.
The
Liberty Amendment will renew personal freedom – the ability of individuals to
exercise their God-given rights with a minimum of dependence on, and
interference from, the Federal Government. It will restore to ourselves and to
future generations the advantages which we inherited from our forefathers –
advantages which made us the most fortunate people on earth.
Economic
freedom, without which no freedom is possible, will be renewed by terminating
federal competition with free enterprise and interference in "our"
economy. When this has been accomplished, federal personal income, estate, and
gift taxes will be unnecessary. So this Amendment will further renew economic
freedom by terminating these taxes.
The
Liberty Amendment is designed to regain the Constitutionally guaranteed powers
reserved to the States and to the people. We are requesting that all States
consider the urgent need to save the sovereignty of the States, the United
States in its true Constitutionally framed Republic, and the Individual Liberty
of all of our People.
Way
back in 1975, Rep. Larry McDonald (D-Georgia) entered an excellent series of
Questions and Answers about the Liberty Amendment into the Congressional
Record. Even today, this is still one of the best explanations of the
Liberty Amendment. Read
it here.
The
Liberty Amendment has been designed to fight all the multitude of apparently
different battles at once – and win by restoring the Constitution to
full force and effect. Once the Amendment is applied, a multitude of diversified
battles will be won. Please read
this important section.
Since the purpose and design of the Liberty Amendment is to Restore
Liberty in America, it is our goal to inform as many Americans as possible
about how this amendment to the Constitution will accomplish this difficult
task in our time. And since nine States, so far, have passed resolutions
requesting Congress to initiate the ratification process, it is our intent to
motivate all freedom loving citizens of the remaining States to request their
State Legislators to pass a resolution endorsing the Liberty Amendment. This
resolution should request Congress to initiate the preferred process of
submitting the Amendment directly to the States for ratification and firmly
insist that a Constitutional Convention only be called for the single purpose
of ratifying the Liberty Amendment.
So
now is the time – for everyone to work for the endorsement of the Liberty
Amendment and for its ratification. We will have to work hard to convince our
state legislators that they should introduce a resolution calling for the
Congress to submit the the Amendment to the states for ratification. Please read this section to see
how you can help!
I've previously written about the Liberty Amendment, and mention it in Promises of the Constitution, vignette 12.6. Several of you have asked me about it. Below is the text of this Amendment to the federal constitution that would correct much of the current abuse coming from the federal government (remember that this amendment would apply only to the national government, not to states). Also listed is information about the current status of this still-active amendment, which chould be supported by all freedom-loving people. .
Note how simple it is, and compare it to the 25,000 pages (and counting) of the healthcare bill. A declaration comes to mind: "The things of God are always simple." The things of good government always are, as well.
Have a good week! Pam