Bakers Dozen™ Steps to Return Some of Our Lost Freedoms

I probably should entitle this a “moderate, minarchist” checklist as part of my hopefully-famous Baker’s Dozen ™ series.  These are intended to be thought-provoking and do NOT reflect my true self-governor’s concept of government.

1. Repeal ALL of “ObamaCare” (ObummerCare, Abominable Act, or Patient Protection  and Affordable Care Act)
2. Repeal Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare and eliminate all related taxes (return these functions and the money to states and private people)
3. Repeal the Sixteeenth Amendment and get rid of the Federal Income Tax.
4. Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment and return to State election, not direct election, of US Senators.  Then replace ALL current serving US Senators with newly appointed people. NO incumbents or past members of the Senate or House should be appointed.
5. Eliminate the Departments of Health and Human Service, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, and Education.  Eliminate minimum of 95% of employees and return 90% of all programs and activities to states or private sector.  There may be a few programs which should be (temporarily) left in federal hands until the best way can be found to get them on their own or closed down, like the Centers for Disease Control, or college loan programs.
6. Merge the Departments of Agriculture and Interior, Veterans Affairs and Defense and Homeland Security, and Labor and Commerce and Transportation, while reducing their size by at least 80 percent.  Return virtually all functions to the states, leaving primarily coordination (such as establishment of standards and cooperative efforts between states).  For example, the Border Patrol would be replaced by National Guard units federalized for limited periods (say, maximum 13 months) which would provide border security.  These active Army units would be required to coordinate directly with local and state law enforcement, and NOT authorized to perform any police functions.  USDA programs would be transferred to states. Most labor and commerce programs would be transferred to states, perhaps with a small residue to coordinate data collection and resolve issues between states.
7. Transfer ALL of the US Army and US Air Force, including the Reserves, to the National Guard, assigning units based on population of the various states, with some consideration as to stationing near if not in their states.   Transfer all installations to the states.  Reduce full time personnel to no more than 10% of the total force, plus any personnel stationed overseas, which must be approved by each state having troops overseas. This leaves the Navy and the Marine Corps and Coast Guard under US control.  However, even their bases and ports would belong to the state in which they are located, to be lent or leased to DoD.
8. Transfer ALL federal lands outside of the District of Columbia, including military installations and post office facilities, to the states or the tribes in which the lands are located, with covenants for the protection of historical and cultural artifacts and natural features.  (Keep calling them National Parks, Forests, etc. but convert the NPS, USFS, and BLM into agencies for establishing standards, recognizing such, and coordinating work and research.)
9. Eliminate ALL federal police agencies and convert the FBI into a training and standards agency which advises but does not assist state and local and tribal agencies.
10. Require that ALL federal revenue be collected through the states, eliminating any direct collection of excise taxes, tariffs, import fees, service fees, or similar revenue.  (With elimination of the income tax, there is no need for the IRS: it would already be gone.
11. Eliminate all federal grants or subsidies of state and local health and welfare programs and activities.
12. Eliminate all federal laws which make anything which is a criminal act under state or tribal law (in ANY tribe or state) a “federal crime.”  For example, if “kidnapping” is a crime in ANY state (believe me, it is a crime in all states), then any federal law which makes kidnapping a crime will be eliminated.  No more “two-tier” criminal laws and charges.
13. Convert as many residual functions of the various agencies to private (profit or non-profit) organizations.  For instance, the USGS and the NWS could both be converted to private, non-profit, member- and service fee-funded companies providing the same services, but in competition with other existing or new companies (such as the Weather Channel, Weather Bug, etc. for the NWS, and Bing, MapQuest, Royal Ordnance Survey, etc. for USGS).

These actions will STILL leave us with far too big a national government, and all the evils of big government on the state and local level, but it might be a good start.  It would free up trillions of dollars each year, so that people and companies can decide how to spend their money (rather than politicians and bureaucrats: we know how bad they are at it).

In this scheme, the Federal Government would return to being an employee or agent for the states, and to mostly dealing with foreign affairs, national defense, and resolving disputes between states and tribes (and honoring those treaties).  Notice this does not address any really challenging issues like getting rid of fiat money (and the Federal Reserve), or campaign finance reforms, or the incredibly low IQ of too many in Congress.  Those may not be resolvable until these thirteen things are done.  And perhaps, then, they may be a moot point.

Notice, I offer NO suggestions as to how to implement these:  a constitutional convention might be one way, but you can be sure that the politicians and their Tranzi friends and supporters will be far too numerous at such a thing to get this kind of slate passed.  Other ways shall be left to the discretion (or frustration) of the reader.

(c) 2013, Nathan A. Barton