USA political system needs changes

[SamuelRSmith]

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

- Alternative vote. When individuals vote, they get two votes. A first pick and second pick. After voting is done, all the first picks are counted. If an individual has over 50% of the vote, they win. If nobody has over 50%, the lowest scoring candidate is removed, and the people who voted for him will have their second picks counted to total. Keep repeating this process until one candidate emerges with over 50% of the vote.

- Increase the number of Reps to 1,000. Introduce rules to reduce gerrymandering.

- Term length increased from 2 to 3 years. One third up for election each year. 3 term limit.

SENATE

- Return control entirely to the states. Each state determines process of selecting their senators. Term limits, lengths, whether they're nominated or elected, etc, all up to the states.

- Senate loses ability to propose new bills, can only amend existing. Any amendments must also go back and pass the House.

- Double qualified majority in order to pass a bill. Requires >50% of Senators AND those Senators must come from States that have >50% of the total population.

PRESIDENT

- Remove electoral college. Use Alternate vote.

SUPREME COURT

- The Supreme Court has a monumental flaw in that it's used as the last determination of what the Federal Government can or can't do, and it's supposed to be "above politics". Yet, there's no denying that the Judges that Presidents appoint are political appointments. Also, how can it be a limit on Federal power when it's selected BY the Federal government?

- I have not got any idea of the mechanism, but the states really need to have some input into the balance of the supreme court.

TAXATION

- The Feds should lose the ability to tax citizens and businesses. They should maintain the power to impose taxes on imports, and user fees for using Federal property. Primarily, the Feds should tax the STATES.

- States are taxed according to Representation in the House. So, if there's 1,000 House Members, and this year's tax bill is $3t, if a state has 50 Representatives, that state will have to pay the Feds $150b

- The tax bill is set by Congress one year in advance of it being due. President has no ability to veto this, though s/he may propose an amount formally to the Congress.

SPENDING

- Should not be allowed to spend more in a given year than they receive in "revenues".

- 1/6 of the spending should allocated every two months.

BILL LENGTH AND TRANSPARENCY

- For every 20 pages of a bill, a day must be waited between being proposed and voted on.

- A bill should be made accessible to the public digitally immediately after being proposed.

CITIZENS UNITED

- I agree with the fundamentals of this Supreme Court ruling. "Money is speech" is just a catchy way of saying that both money and freedom of speech are derived from the same right of property.

- Rand Paul has the perfect solution for this. Corporations can donate at much as they want. However, if a corporation donates a large amount of cash, then they are not allowed to accept Federal contracts for the period of that Congress.

MONEY

- States should repatriate their gold, and the Congress should determine the value of the dollar vis-a-vis a weight of gold. States will then control their own finance systems, with the only limit being the physical amount of gold under the control of the State.