TEA IN A WHOLE NEW BAG

                      TEA IN A WHOLE NEW BAG

    More and more it seems that nothing can bring this country's

politicos and bureaucrats back under control (to the extent they

ever were) as the Founding Fathers intended.  Bureaucrats are

more anonymous and unreachable every year:  no matter how

incensed we get -- or how many of us get that way --

politicians reelect themselves like clockwork.

    Though it's all the rage among those concerned with such

matters, I've never been satisfied that term limitation won't

achieve the opposite of what's intended, removing a final curb on

runaway do-goodery and social experimentation.  With respect to

recent passage of what's supposed to be the 28th Amendment, the

most naive American today knows more than James Madison did of

the way politicians fix things to suit themselves.  They'll

override ratification, agree to vote raises for their successors,

or simply make their mercenary move early in their terms, in the

comforting knowledge that voters will have forgotten what they

did by Election Day.  

    It should be clear now that the imposition of Bill Clinton

on the productive class -- by 43% of the electorate -- has only

made things worse.  In an age where half the average person's

income already goes to taxes of one kind or another and the other

half for goods and services with prices doubled by taxation and

doubled again by regulation -- and where bureaucrats represent a

greater threat to life, liberty, and property than politicians --

what's needed is something more certain than term limitation and

harder to get around than Madison's schedule for congressional

pay hikes.  

    Allow me to introduce the "Taxpayers' Equity Amendment":

    1. No elected or appointed official at any level of

government may receive more in total salary, benefits, and

expenses during his term of office -- or for 5 years afterward --

than his average productive-sector constituent; individuals, and

employees of companies deriving more than 10% of their revenue

from government will be excluded for purposes of calculating the

average.  

    2. Those subject to the Taxpayers' Equity Amendment will be

required to participate in the Social Security system for as long

as it continues to exist; all outside income (from a business,

inheritance, investments, a spouse's wealth, speaking fees -- to

name only a few examples) will be "invested in America" by

being placed in randomly-selected savings and loan institutions

until the 5-year period expires.

    3. Those subject to the Taxpayers' Equity Amendment will be

required to file weekly income/expenditure forms for scrutiny by

the IRS, the media, and the public; telephone hotlines and lavish

rewards for "whistle-blowers" will be provided; all salary and

benefits of officials under suspicion of having violated the

Taxpayers' Equity Amendment will be suspended pending the results

of any investigation.  

    4. Violations of the Taxpayers' Equity Amendment will result

in summary removal of that official, loss of salary, benefits,

expenses -- along with all deposited monies -- and no fewer than

25 years in that federal maximum-security prison currently deemed

most violent; introducing, sponsoring, or voting for legislation

meant to evade the Taxpayers' Equity Amendment, or to falsify the

statistical base on which calculations are made, will be treated

as violations. 

    The primary goals of the Taxpayers' Equity Amendment are:

    (A) to punish politicians and bureaucrats for past, present,

and future crimes against the lives, liberties, and property of

"We the People of the United States", 

    (B) to make sure their fortunes rise and fall with ours --

so they're forced to scrape along by day by day like the rest of

us, one paycheck away from bankruptcy -- and,

    (C) to give them something better to do with their time than

to continually threaten, at our expense, our fundamental rights

and well-being.

    It'll also save taxpayers around $300 billion a year.

    The Taxpayers' Equity Amendment can begin working now,

before it ever passes into law (even if it never does), if it's

circulated widely via computer bulletin board networks and other

means, appears frequently in magazine and newspaper letter

columns, and if it's sent to all your favorite office holders.  

    Have fun,

    L. Neil Smith, Libertarian Second Amendment Caucus