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If You Could Be America’s Dictator for a Day
The American Constitution, with its distribution of government powers into different branches and levels, was designed to produce gridlock. And that’s generally a good thing; the harder the laws are to create, the less likely we are to get bad laws.
But every so often, we see or read about some injustice and think, “Boy, I wish I could just change this without needing to persuade thousands or millions of people to vote for me as a congressman or president respectively, persuade congressmen to vote for my legislation, or find the perfect case to persuade judges to change constitutional law.” In short, we’d just like to be dictator.
Here’s my list:
Overturn Wickard v. Filburn. This case interprets the interstate commerce clause to give Congress the power to regulate anything bought or sold, even if it doesn’t cross state lines. It is effectively the elastic waistband of the Constitution that allows Congress to insist that it still wears the same size pants it did back in 1790.
Overturn South Dakota v. Dole. This case allows the federal government to force states to pass laws that Congress wants but can’t pass itself under the Constitution. (I don’t have a strong opinion on the merits of the law in question, i.e. whether 18-20-year-olds can buy alcohol. Having married at 18, if I wanted booze I could get Chef Sly to buy it for me.)
Overturn Shelley v. Kraener. I’m not opposed to the outcome; covenants that forbid selling to a person of a different race are wrong — but the rationale that because contacts are adjudicated in courts the federal government has the right to dictate the terms of any contact? That’s a terrifying precedent. I can only assume that it hasn’t been used in a leftist power grab because leftists aren’t sufficiently educated in constitutional law.
Remove the unconstitutional in spirit cap on members of the House of Representatives. The system was designed to give large states more power and representation, but the current cap means denying them that. Give each state a number of congressional districts equal to multiples of the smallest state’s population. (The House would immediately gain about 200 members.) This would also help reduce gerrymandering.
Make all student loans forgivable in Chapter 7 bankruptcy. To discourage abuse, this would only be an option seven or more years after leaving school and would result in a permanent hold on one’s transcript. That is, a doctor or lawyer could discharge his debts, but would ineligible for his professional license. Moreover, any school where more than 5% of students took this option would be denied all federal funding, including student loans for its students.
Hospitals that take Medicaid and Medicare must publicize cost schedules for all procedures, including the government price, the cash price, and the price charged to the major health insurance providers.
Eliminate head of household tax rates and make the married tax brackets double those of single filers.
And on the admittedly petty side, there would be an extra tax on tobacco to provide cleaning services for the poor fools who decide to buy a house from smokers.
That’s my list; what’s yours?
Published in General
Not a bad list. How about overturning the 17th amendment?
You have been thinking about this and were inspired by recent “if I was king for a day” posts…yes?
In my day as dictator, erasing the 17th Amendment is done before I roll out of bed. The EPA gets flushed shortly thereafter.
I know this is a major push for right-wing constitutionalists, but the 17th just doesn’t bother me that much. The Founders assumed that state loyalty would always trump party loyalty, but that stopped being true before they were all dead. I’m not an expert on the subject (@jamesofengland or @sabrdance would be more knowledgeable here) but my understanding is that senators were putting party interests over state interests even before the 17th.
I agree that states qua states should be more powerful in our system, but I think empowering them to kick the feds out of what is more properly state business will accomplish that more than giving the state majority parties more power.
Moreover, our House of Representatives has also strayed from the Founders’ vision. Districts have been so gerrymandered that the only competitive election most reps have is their primary, which results in more and more extreme reps on both sides. Senators, by contrast, have to appeal to a majority of their state’s voters and therefore are much more representative of the state’s population. Notice that the most embarrassing members of both parties are reps in completely safe districts, e.g. Todd Akin before he ran for Missouri senator, or AOC in New York. So even if the Senate we have isn’t the Senate the Founders wanted, I don’t think it’s a big source of our political problems.
I’ve heard several pundits say if they could change one law it would be to eliminate income tax withholding, forcing people to write a check every month or quarter for the government services they expect.
I struggle with this.
The first thing I would do is rule that my rule was longer than a day. I know me too well.
Recent, eh?
I was thinking of my old one: http://ricochet.com/261412/archives/dictator-for-a-week/.
I would decrease the vote needed for a veto override to 3/5 from 2/3.
I would enact a law that no one who has entered illegally can ever become a citizen, but could, at most become a permanent resident.
Extend citizenship to most Dreamers, but not allow them to “sponsor” their parents for citizenship.
Change immigration from “family based reunification” to “merit” focus.
I would eliminate “no-fault” divorce.
I would replace Jackson on the $20 bill, and replace him with another Dem. I would replace Grant on the $50 bill with Reagan.
I would go back in time 400 years and prohibit the importation of slaves.
I would invite Canada to merge with the U.S.
I would reapportion Congress based upon the number of citizens, and not just people in the state. With the number of illegal persons in California not being counted, California would lose 5-6 of its 53 Representatives.
Yes!
One-line repeal of Obamacare, for one thing.
Michael Paulsen and Gary Lawson are on the Supreme Court before my second cup of tea.
I nicely ask Paul Ryan to reform our entitlement programs to deal with the debt. He has till afternoon teatime.
I order the building of a large stretch of border wall. I also call up Mark Krikorian and ask him for some other ideas involving immigration reform.
I hated that outcome.
Abolish the DH in baseball.
Repeal the portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that mandates majority minority districts, and then create a mathematical formula for redistricting. Districts would be created in a couple of seconds after the census information is loaded into the computer.
Have the Electoral College voters be selected by congressional district, with the final two being selected state wide.
Abolish “plurality wins all delegates” rules.
Me too. Because the people would need me.
Good list in the OP!
Also endorsements for Petty’s (non)withholding initiative, and Gary’s:
One of the things Canada gets right, let’s take a lesson from our neighbor.
However, all the illegals are heading home by tea time, we’re mobilizing the entire AF and civilian transport fleet. Sometimes you just have to rip the band-aid off and (to mix eras) provide a lesson pour encourager les autres. There’s only so many sob stories the DNC media can run at a time, so it’s time for a dense pack attack (yet another metaphor).
Also on the agenda:
Henceforth, all executive agency regulations above a given $ impact (assessed by Congressional office) must be affirmatively passed by Congress to take effect.
10% across the board pay cut for DC based bureaucrats, and henceforth their pay will be held at 10% below comparable private positions.
We will implement Glenn Reynold’s anti-revolving-door tax starting tomorrow.
Agencies without Defense or Security in their name are going to lose all their door kickers and arsenals. If they need enforcement, let them convince the locals or the FBI or Federal marshals.
We’re going to have another Church committee, and a top to bottom reorg of the Intelligence Community. If the FISA court survives, there’s going to some tough laws on practices like using ‘5 eyes’ to surveil Americans, and convenient (planned) ‘incidental collection’.
I would only need three.
One, eliminate the Executive Order that allowed government unions. Disband every single union of government employees, immediately. That would allow any government employee to be let go at any time. And fire every government employee with a title that has “diversity” or “Deputy Assistant” in the job title.
Two, eliminate any executive agency law enforcement power. Laws may be enacted ONLY by Congress, and enforced only by congressional sanction. No more “administrative law judges”. No more “agency military”.
Three, enact term limits for Congress. Three terms for House members, two terms for Senators. And make it illegal for legislators in the House and Senate to exempt themselves from any law they enact. All laws affect every US citizen equally.
70% tax rate for anyone who votes for a democrat.
Any regulation issued by any executive branch department must be voted on by Congress before it takes effect.
All bills going through Congress must be a single subject. No bill shall be more than 10 pages.
All bills must include a statement of intent ‘spirit of the law sentence’.
I can’t be the only one who would raid the treasury for my own personal benefit? Probably just the only one willing to admit it.
No-Fault removal of a President by a 2/3 vote of no confidence. This would require multiple Vice Presidents to prevent shenanigans, however the Presidental Candidate could designate members of the Senate and House as the “Second, Third and Fourth Vice Presidents.
Have the District of Columbia vote for members of the House and Senate as part of Maryland. (This would allow a second Reagan to be able to carry all 50 states!)
Not to be a wise guy about the question, but I think I’d do the opposite. Amy’s list starts with Wickard v. Filburn. She’s not wrong about it, but the fact that a free people is leashed by a court decision decades irrelevant for everything except precedent indicates that there’s more that’s wrong here than an undue deference to that precedent. A free people doesn’t need a dictator to set things right. And a slave population? Any benevolent dictator is merely holding back the inevitable. As such I think I’d try to break the laws that put me in that position, because inevitably they’re going to do more harm to the people than whatever good I’d accomplish.
But yeah, there’s absolutely no reason for medical billing to be the limitless quagmire it is now.
I’d need study time before my Dictator Day to determine which agencies, but on my Dictator Day I’d eliminate several government agencies and lay off the employees thereof (I know the EPA and the Department of Education would be on the list). I’d also probably significantly cut the staff of most other agencies. I’d need to do some advance homework so I could impose some mechanisms to reduce the likelihood the agencies would grow back.
I’d require Congressional votes of approval on all agency regulations so that each member of Congress can be held accountable for everything the government does to a constituent, and can’t duck responsibility by pointing to the agency. (This one’s almost feasible except that Congress won’t impose that on themselves.)
And I’d carry out the desire of @amyschley to overturn Wickard v. Filburn.
I’d set a requirement that any court decision that purports to interpret the US Constitution must explain in detail how the educated people of 1790 (or the date of the Amendment if an Amendment is involved) would have understood the provision.
Abolish birthright citizenship, abolish public-sector unions and create term limits for House & Senate members.
What are the parameters here?
Do I have the full power of the federal government for one day, but still answer to the Constitution?
But I doubt they were spending as much of the states’ money (i.e. unfunded mandates) back then.
They could be retrained for construction work and they could choose whether to build a border wall or the giant pyramid I will eventually be buried in.
Prospectively only
Since the liklihood of your getting either is the same I’d say go for broke.
Have a strict requirement that Congress can’t pass a new law without repealing an old one. Or maybe two old ones.
I want to go the day after Gary, so I can fix all the stuff he breaks.
Ideas suggested I like:
All for this.
This is one I should have added (writing posts on a phone is a pain.) My immigration solution:
suckerstaxpayers we can get to support our failing entitlements.I do like both of these, particularly when coupled with increasing the size of the House to properly represent larger states.
Amen.
With you on the first two. We don’t need term limits; we need citizens who give enough of a damn to not keep voting the same fools into office.