What Is It?
The US Stakeholders Movement has been initiated to restore the power taken from the US taxpayer. If you are unhappy with the way that our government is ruining our country then you need to read this to learn how it is happening and how to stop it.
The US Stakeholders Movement identifies two key root causes that have led to the disconnect between representation and taxation.
First Cause: The 16th Amendment levied income taxes on US citizens, but failed to restrict voting power on fiscal matters to the taxpayers. At first glance, this may be interpreted as simply a taxpayer whine about having their hard earned money taken to support government dependents since that is a valid concern in itself. The real evil is that this opened the door for the practice of buying the votes of government dependents and other beneficiaries using taxpayer funded programs.
Politicians became empowered to promise voters rewards from the government coffers in return for voter sponsorship. Since these voters are minimally or completely unburdened by those costs, which are becoming increasingly substantial, this creates a conflict of interest. As long as those politicians can purchase those votes, they can remain in office and pretty much do whatever they want to the rest of us. This erodes the core of our democracy through a corrupted practice that has somehow become legal through systematic changes over the years. It is essentially buying votes with a sustained payment program. It is a cyclic problem that is expansive in nature, and this should concern you greatly.
Second Cause: The separation of commerce and state is needed. This would prevent the government from controlling and disrupting free trade and business, and it would remove the second source of voting power loss, corporate influence. Taxpayers must compete with powerful, special interest influences that steer our politicians. This was not intended by the founders of our country.
With the obstacles and demands introduced by these two root causes, there has been a great loss of democracy for the rest of us, which is the direct cause of the state of our nation today.
Voting is the mechanism of controlling a democracy, but that voting mechanism has been broken as discussed here. Fix the root causes, and the rest of the symptoms will eventually repair themselves naturally when the will of the people is restored. It is natural to focus on the painful symptoms (and minor victories), but do not let them distract you from the actual injuries.
The mission of the US Stakeholders Movement is to promote awareness of these issues and generate a powerful support base in order to address them. We invite you to get onboard.
More Detail
US citizens became income taxpayers via the 16th Amendment. Through incremental changes over the years, laws and practices have changed such that the taxpayers have effectively lost their representation. This happened because the 16th Amendment empowers the government to tax US citizens, but it does not constrain voting power about fiscal matters to the ones being taxed. This has led to a large voting force that is able to drive spending decisions without the burden of paying for those decisions to the point that many representatives are barely accountable to taxpayers today.
Couple this with the massive influence by corporations and special interests that is permissible because there is no separation of commercial commerce and state, and the taxpayers have almost lost all influence over their government.
This has resulted in excessive, reckless, unfair government spending practices that have become oppressive. The following describes the overdue changes that are needed to our US Constitution in order to restore fairness to the US taxpayers:
Require separation of commerce and state similar to the separation of church and state
Representatives would only be elected by US stakeholders (taxpayers, members of the military and other contributors)
Representatives would continue to vote as permitted with the federal laws established today
Only representatives would be allowed to vote on creation or modification of US laws that concern fiscal decisions and policy
Senators would only be permitted to vote on legislation that does not concern fiscal decisions and policy
Senators would continue to be elected as with the federal laws established today
Establish a legal requirement to categorize new bills and laws on the basis of whether they are concerned with fiscal laws or policy
Establish a legal requirement to categorize existing laws when they become active candidates for modification or removal as being concerned with fiscal laws or policy
Establish laws that define the requirements for categorization of a proposed or existing law as being one that concerns fiscal law or policy
Establish laws that define the criteria, processes and mechanisms used to qualify or disqualify citizens as US Stakeholders whom may vote to elect representatives
No change to the existing qualifications for citizens rights to vote for offices with the exception of the House of Representatives members(described above)
Legal definitions of Common Tax Funded Benefits and Excess Tax Funded Benefits
Application the US stakeholders principles to the state and city levels
Programs that assist government dependents transition of becoming US stakeholders
Reasoning
Imagine if companies allowed the general public, people with no investment, position or risk, and even the ones that represent a conflict of interest, to make its decisions concerning their operations, spending and pricing. Would you invest in that company? Would that company have a chance of survival?
How about your own personal budget? Would you allow anyone and everyone to decide how your money is spent? I bet not! Unfortunately, if you have a job, business, investments or savings, that is already happening to a degree.
Responsible companies and people only allow participation of decisions concerning their budgets by others with common, committed interest to their well being and success. Doing it any other way makes no sense at all.
Concepts
The US Stakeholders Movement is about putting the control of our country back into the hands of the citizens that have a common, vested interest in a strong and healthy country with responsible leadership. Those people are the stakeholders who have actually made a positive contribution of funds and services to our nation. The taxpayers, members of the military and other such contributors are the stakeholders.
Rather than just generic idealistic ranting about the need for action, the US Stakeholders Movement identifies the problem and offers a concrete solution to many of our nation's problems by addressing the root cause. Our country is supposed to be governed by representatives that reflect the will of its people.
The participants of the Stakeholder Movement believe that the general state and well being of our country would fare much better by removing the conflict of interest that is fostered by the bias introduced by the combination of tax laws and voting laws.
Real Change Is Needed
There are approximately 140 million taxpayers who are now burdened by the irresponsible, reckless spending by our government. In 2008, the budget deficit increased by one trillion dollars or $7,143 more per taxpayer. In 2009, the budget deficit increased by 2.5 trillion dollars or $17,858 more per taxpayer. The increase to the debt through 2019 is already proposed to exceed $900 billion each year if the government does not increase spending further (not likely). That's $6,429 more per tax payer for years to come. Taxes must increase significantly to cover this spending. Do the math! How bad can it get? Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to impose a 100% tax on all incomes over $25,000 (about $300,000 in today's spending power). That happened here, not some other country. If the ambitious cannot become or remain wealthy here, they will do it someplace else, and take their wealth, spending and the jobs that they create with them.
The government is supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people. In order to maintain this truth, the government must grant more power to the taxpayer if it intends to burden the taxpayer with such extreme spending. Otherwise, the government becomes the oppressor. It is not wrong to demand something in return for the burden and responsibility of which we have been saddled.
There were no income taxes when our constitution was created. The Constitution was drafted at a time when the situation of our nation was much different than today. The government was not empowered to demand a share of your earnings and property. The Constitution was amended to grant that power to the government, and it can be amended again such that the process is applied fairly. The Constitution addresses taxation without representation, but it does not address representation without taxation. That is the core of the problem.
American citizens are forced under the threat of fines, seizure of assets and loss of liberty to pay taxes. If a citizen fails to pay their taxes or attempts to evade their tax burden, they can be convicted of a felony charge and lose their right to vote. Therefore, taxes and the right to vote are connected. However, there is a bias. Citizens not required to pay taxes have no threat of losing their right to vote as a result of not paying. Many government leaders use this bias to their advantage. It maintains a strong voting pool such that many multi-term representatives are accountable to their voting public, but not the taxpayers. Voting districts are often defined in such a way as to maximize this situation. What a con game! It is obvious that many of the decisions and the conduct of our leaders is only made possible as a direct result of that lack of accountability to the taxpayers.
It is as important to address the loss of accountability by our government leadership to the taxpayers as it is to address the unfair redistribution of wealth from earners to non-earners. A very real disconnect exists between the taxpayers and the body of US representatives. The taxpayers pounded their "representatives" with emails against the gigantic bailout of the extremely wealthy, but it still happened. Czars and regulating bodies such as the fed are being established as buffers to define and enforce policies although they are not elected by the people.
There is a huge and growing population that gets representation for the decision making without contributing their share to the tax burden. However, the taxpayers get stuck with the costs to fund those decisions. From my personal perspective, it is similar to being forced to contribute a large share of my earnings to another country, to a place with different values such as those exposed over and over again via the ACORN videos. I don't live in that society. I am not welcome there. I do not feel safe there. Doesn't that sound like a different country to you? I do not believe in a society that is immensely dependent on the government. How can dependency also be liberty? What happens when citizens fully depend on the government, and it lets them down? Could that happen here? Ask the dependent citizens harmed by Hurricane Katrina.
The fact is that government has been growing, and the number of citizens living in poverty has been increasing. The correlation is not coincidental. The impoverished communities are not improving, and they are growing bigger and older. This clearly indicates that the solutions implemented by the government are not working. Higher taxes will further stagnate the economy, which will worsen the situation. The dollar presses have been running full speed so inflation will eventually provide a second burden as a double whammy to our economy.
How can I have the audacity to suggest that the sacred Constitution be changed? For starters, there have already been 27 amendments. Apparently, I am not the only one that thinks the Constitution should be treated as a living document to incorporate the modifications needed as times change. Here are a couple more opinions:
Our Constitution, which we all take an oath to support and defend, is an enduring and living document that has throughout our history expanded rights, not diminished them.
- Nancy Pelosi, stated on the House floor on July 18, 2006
Ultimately, though, I have to side with Justice Breyer's view of the Constitution — that it is not a static but rather a living document, and must be read in the context of an ever-changing world.
- Barack Obama from his book, "The Audacity of Hope"
A Solution
All Americans enjoy the common benefits and liberties made possible by taxes (military defense, law enforcement, education, safety regulations, civil services, etc.). It would be unfair for the government to impose tax burdens on Americans without providing such benefits. That would be tyranny.
However, many Americans and businesses also enjoy additional Excess Tax Funded Benefits that are not provided to all citizens and businesses (housing assistance, free housing, food stamps, business bail outs, welfare, job assistance, community assistance, free legal representation, subsidies, free health care, etc). Often these benefits are received over decades, not limited to a temporary period of hardship. The balance sheets for businesses that receive assistance aren't showing profits so they are paying little or no income taxes. It becomes a lifestyle or an established way of doing business. It is a fact that there are many who regularly benefit more than others from tax funded benefits. To unbalance the situation further, many people and businesses that are enjoying the most tax funded benefits often pay the least amount or no income taxes.
It has become obvious that many choose to vote for leaders that create and support programs that will provide them benefits without the burden of the associated costs. This is an unfair practice, and it represents a conflict of interest. The nature of this practice is expansive because as more benefits become available, the lifestyle becomes more comfortable, more socially acceptable, and more citizens are drawn to the government dependent lifestyle. Its voting force grows as the burden of the taxpayers increases ever more until full socialism results. We are already headed there quickly, and the process is accelerating.
To remove the conflict of interest, the Constitution should be amended such that only US Stakeholders are allowed to vote for representatives and on bills concerning fiscal policies and laws by applying the set of changes listed at the top of this page.
A class action lawsuit will likely be required. Recent experience has demonstrated that asking our representatives to make major changes that yield power to the people (such as term limits) does not happen by merely exercising our voices and weakened votes.
Implementation
The government performs the qualification processes to determine the recipients of all benefits paid, and it knows the amounts that are paid to each recipient. To avoid abuse and corruption (theoretically), this data is gathered and tracked meticulously. Therefore, the government can approximate with a high degree of accuracy the cost or amount of excess benefits that are paid or granted to citizens. The IRS has access to the amount of taxes paid by each individual. Both sets of information could be collected in a centralized database used to track such balances.
To remove the conflict of interest, the Excess Tax Funded Benefits and income taxes paid can be used together in order to determine a citizen's qualification to vote. By default, all American citizens would be entitled to Common Tax Funded Benefits and have the right to vote for representatives and fiscal bills under the same set of qualifications used today. However, if a citizen receives a sum total of Excess Tax Funded Benefits that exceeds the amount of income taxes paid by that citizen, that represents a conflict of interest since they are now effectively spending the money of other Americans. To maintain fairness to the taxpayers, that citizen would exchange their right to vote for fiscal representatives in return for their Excess Tax Funded Benefits received. This would only last while the conflict of interest exists for that citizen.
There should be other considerations such as military service, especially given the HUGE COMMITMENT and SACRIFICE they have made toward defending our freedom. To all past, present and future members of the US military, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!
Details of the implementation must be defined, but the mission is to empower the taxpayers through proper representation for fiscal policies since the taxpayers are the ones burdened to fund them.
Separation of Commerce and State
The separation of church and state has been mandated and enforced aggressively by our nation because of legitimate concerns of specialized influence and religious oppression.
For the same reasons, the Constitution should be amended to create separation of commerce and state. This removes the specialized influence and economic oppression of the taxpayers and businesses. This is needed to prevent the corporations from controlling or influencing the laws unfairly and to keep government out of the corporations. It would remove the power of the government to demand money from the taxpayers only to distribute it to specialized business interests that are managed by executives earning millions. The government claims that they must allow payment of huge bonuses to the executives of companies receiving relief funds because of pre-existing agreements. This perversion only happened because the government got involved when they should not have. When businesses fail, the executive management should deal with failure like the rest of us. Being forced to support a government manufactured poverty class is costly enough, but now we are being forced to support the incompetent, mega corporations too. This has gotten totally out of control!
Government stimulus and recovery programs only temporarily address the symptoms of a troubled economy and actually delay true recovery, which ultimately increases the pain. These practices add massively to the exploding federal budget deficits, resulting in higher taxes, which burden the economy. The government says it manages free enterprise for the better. Have they? The politicians claim a victory for creating jobs that year, and our children and grandchildren inherit more burdens to bear for years to come.
Quotes
There are certain truths that are true no matter how much we may deny them. In the economic realm, for instance, you can not legislate the poor into independence by legislating the wealthy out of it. You can not multiply wealth by dividing it. Government can not give to the people what it does not first take away from people. And that which one man receives without working for, another man must work for without receiving.
- Kenneth W. Sollitt
It is my belief that that there should be a separation of commerce and state just as there is a separation of church and state because in both cases it prevents having special interests impose direct influence on the laws and policies that effect everyone.
- Richard Bobo
