The Process

The Power of the States

The framers believed that the state legislatures would preserve the rights of the people against the tyranny of the federal government. Initially, Madison and Jefferson felt that human rights would be protected by the judiciary. When that failed, in their opinion, they realized that the State Legislatures would have to be the last line of defense to protect the people's rights from encroachment by the federal government.

Madison said that security would lie in the state legislatures, which would "jealously and closely" watch the operations of the federal government, and would be able to resist every assumption of power more effectively than any power on earth could do. The state legislatures were, in his opinion, "sure guardians of the people's liberty." Dumas added: "But if he and Jefferson had been able to rely on the federal judiciary as the first line of defense of human rights, they would not have needed to fall back on the state legislatures." [Introduction to the Bill of Rights, Malone, Dumas, Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1962), p. 398.]

Madison further said regarding specific constitutional guarantees of the rights of individuals, that those rights were secured by, "the limited powers of the federal government and the jealousy of the subordinate governments (referring to the States)." Letter to Jefferson October 17,1788

Hamilton said, "... the State legislatures, who will always be not only vigilant, but suspicious and jealous guardians of the rights of the citizens against encroachments from the federal government, will constantly have their attention awake to the conduct of the national government, and will be ready enough, if anything improper appears, to sound the alarm to the people, and not only to be the voice but if necessary the ARM of discontent." (Federalist #26, #28), Malone, Dumas, Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1962), p. 397.)

The Process

There are two ways to amend the US Constitution. One is for Congress to propose an amendment and for the states to ratify it. The other is for the states to hold ratifying conventions of their own and do it without Congress. The only amendment to ever pass this way was the 21st amendment repealing prohibition. This came through the states because the temperance lobby was too powerful for Congress to do it on their own. It is now time for the states to stand up to encroachment of our rights by the federal government by passing this Amendment.

We know Congress would never propose this Amendment, so it must come to them from the states. It takes is 2/3 of State Legislatures to propose an amendment and 3/4 to pass it. This is a reasonable proposition because everyone will support it except Congress and the lobby for large banks. Individuals will support it because they will stop being robbed. The States will support it because they cannot print money and they lose no rights with this amendment. They only gain benefits. Even small and medium sized banks will support it because only in extremely rare instances will they be offered a bailout by Congress and the Fed.

The Organization

Each state will need an organization to propose the idea for this amendment to their legislators. That organization will come from citizens like you. If you are interested in helping your legislators understand the need for this effort in your state, please fill out our form and we will keep you updated with information as it is developed.

The Result

In order to correct the problems of the past for good, there are several steps that will fall into place once we start the process together.

1. We stop Congress from using the Fed to monetize debt (This is a first step that will lead logically to the rest.)
2. Banks will stop making "bad" or "risky" loans. (Without the promise of bailouts, all risk is then directly on the banks rather than taxpayers, so they will avoid the risk of bad loans.)
3. Congress will debate what type of monetary system is more appropriate than the one we currently have. This might be a return to the gold or other commodity standard or any number of other alternatives described elsewhere on this site.
4. Banks themselves or Congress will increase bank reserve requirements (Since Congress can't monetize, there is no incentive to allow banks to lay off risk on tax payers. A reserve increase of 2.5%/yr for 36 years results in a 100% reserve requirement.)

Disrupting the economy is inevitable. You cannot have bad monetary policy practices in place for 200 hundred years and stop the process with no pain. Congress has dug us a deep hole. We need to quit digging by stopping Congress' ability to monetize debt. We need to recognize our mistakes, take our losses and start a sound monetary policy from this time forward.

If you are a State legislator or are willing to work with yours to right this injustice, please contact us for more information on how to get started.