The Liberty Amendment to Repeal the 16th Amendment

 

Liberty

The Liberty Amendment Liberty, freedom and sovereignty restored to all Americans

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stand repealed and thereafter Congress shall not levy taxes on personal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 February 7, 2007 the Hon. Ron Paul of Texas introduced in The House of
  Representatives the
  <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.J.RES.23:">
  House Joint Resolution 23:


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.


HJR 23 has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. See the
<a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HJ00023:@@@X"> latest
status of HJR 23.

(Ron Paul
<a href="http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2003/cr013003c.htm">
previously introduced this amendment on January 28, 2003 as
<a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.J.RES.15:"> House Joint
Resolution 15.  HJR 15 was referred to the House Committee on the
Judiciary. See its
<a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HJ00015:@@@X"> latest
status.)

For more background information, please see The Liberty
Amendment – its origin and progress.

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.

Questions and Answers


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 will win the battle on 45 issues
all at once

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.

ACTION FOR AMERICANS: HERE IS THE ACTION BY
ANY AMERICAN WHO REALLY WANTS TO ACHIEVE RATIFICATION OF THE LIBERTY
AMENDMENT

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!


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Background Reading

The Liberty Amendment – its origin and
progress

How the Liberty Amendment originated, its author, and a timeline of its progress
through the years.

Growth of the Federal Government

The specter of Federal Government growth in size and power, and the need
for the Liberty Amendment is more desperate now than ever.

Centralizing Power in the Federal Government


The erosion of the balance of powers from the States and the People – to
the Federal Government, generating momentum for the Liberty Amendment movement.

Bureaucratic Domination

Bureaucratic domination and how it has accelerated in America.

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence–it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and fearful master." – George Washington

http://www.libertyamendment.org/origin.html

Comments

[math]

[this is good] Question, Zak. Under this program of decentralization (which is a laudable goal if done in a rational and manageable and non-radical way) who would be responsible for protecting people from bad peanut products that might kill people or make people sick across state lines?

[Zak Klemmer, ACS, ALB]

I knew Willis E. Stone personally as I was an intern at his office when I was 19-20 years-old. One of my best friends had a paying job with the Liberty Amendment Committee as a research assistant working on Mr. Stone's book on the Federal Budget. When I think of citizen activists Willis Stone and Howard Jarvis both come to mind.

[J P Tuggle]

After writing 4 local Republican Congressmen (whom I consider relatively 'good') on the issue of Term Limits, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to fix Washington is direct amendment to the Constitution.