SECTION l: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

A. The Executive Branch.

1.The Executive Branch shall uphold the Constitution, the laws of the United States, and international law in times of peace, in times of war, and during a national emergency. The Executive Branch shall respect the Separation of Powers contained in the Constitution.

2. The Executive Branch shall not escape oversight of Congress or the people of the United States.
 

3. Laws or bills that have increased Presidential powers or eliminated oversight of the Executive Branch as delineated in the United States Constitution shall be abolished.
 

4. The Executive Branch shall uphold the international law set forth in the Geneva Conventions and shall not authorize the torture of prisoners, whether they are U.S. citizens or not.

5. All Presidential papers shall become public eight years after a President leaves office.

6. A President, Vice President, or member of the Executive Branch or support staff shall be subject to prosecution for criminal acts performed in office. No statutes of limitation shall apply and there shall be no Presidential pardon.

B. The Legislative Branch

1. The U.S. Congress shall give priority to laws and actions that benefit the people of the United States and create transparency in their decisions regarding the laws governing the United States.

2. There shall be no earmarks or riders attached to bills. Each bill must address one subject only.

3. Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to U.S. Senators and Representatives. Congress shall make no law that applies to Senators and Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.
In addition, elected representatives shall not receive free medical coverage or other benefits until a national health care system is in place.

C. The Judicial Branch

1. The Supreme Court and the Judicial Branch shall confine their actions to constitutional mandates.

2. Justices of the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice, shall be limited to a total of two seven-year terms.

D. Economics

1. The federal government shall act to balance the budget, reduce national debt, and eliminate inflation in the U.S. economy.

2. The Federal Reserve Bank shall be nationalized and run by the federal government. The national debt owed to the Federal Reserve shall be canceled.

3. The Glass-Steagall Act shall be reinstated in its entirety.

4. The federal government shall return to the gold standard.
 

5. Large denominations of currency, such as $500 and $1000 bills, shall be returned to circulation. The penny shall be eliminated.

6. The privatized Federal Reserve Bank shall restrict the creation of dollars to inhibit inflation.
 

7. The federal government shall provide negative incentives for any company that seeks to ship U.S. jobs overseas. The government shall reestablish tariffs on all goods imported into the United States. An additional ten percent tax shall be imposed on goods from American corporations that have outsourced manufacturing jobs abroad during the last 10 years.

8. Neither federal, state, nor local governments or the military shall buy foreign products if American-made equivalents are available.
 

9. No branch of government shall pay more than market value for goods or services. The products purchased must be bio-preferred, if possible, and include the “greenest” products available.

10. Government accounting methods must meet the same standards as mandated for publicly traded corporations.

E. Military

1. The budget for military spending and the Pentagon shall be reduced to no more than double that of any other country. The military shall institute a bidding process for all contracts signed. “No-bid” contracts are expressly forbidden.

2. The U.S. shall not maintain more than two hundred military bases on foreign soil.

3. Reservists shall not be subject to multiple call-ups for service or forced to serve beyond the requirements of their original contracts.
 

4. Posse Comitatus  shall be restored.
 

F. Foreign Relations

1. The United States shall not invade or attack other countries unless invaded or attacked first.

2. The U.S. military and all government agencies are prohibited from entering a foreign nation for the purpose of drug interdiction.

3. There shall be no free trade agreements.

4. The federal government shall comply with all of the provisions of the Geneva Conventions.

G. Privatization

1. No branch of government, including the U.S. military, regulatory, or administrative bodies or agencies or parts thereof, deemed responsible for the common good of the people of the United States, shall be allowed to be privatized.

2. No public infrastructure shall be sold to any private party or corporate interest. All such sales that have taken place in the last ten years shall revert to public ownership at the original price.

3. Private, for-profit corporations, domestic or foreign, shall not be allowed to take over the duties of U.S. agencies. Government programs funded by taxpayer dollars shall not be administered by private, for-profit corporations.
 

H. Taxes

1. The tax code shall be simplified so as to be readable by all citizens.

2. Corporations that benefit from the commons should be taxed appropriately for the use of the commons. These revenues will be used to pay for a national health care system and for the protection and restoration of the environment. A corporation may not evade their responsibility to restore public lands after that corporation has exploited the land and its resources.

3. Tax codes shall be altered such that there are no state, federal, or local taxes imposed on commodities necessary for basic survival. This includes, at minimum, food, water, shelter, and energy.

4. Social Security income shall not be taxed.

5. Federal and state inheritance taxes shall be repealed for estates valued under $50 million. Corporate taxes shall be increased to cover the loss of inheritance tax revenues.

6. There shall be no gift taxes on the transfer of money to immediate family members.
 

7. The Internal Revenue Service shall not audit anyone with a gross income of $50,000 or less.

8. The Internal Revenue Service shall give its highest auditing priority to large corporations.

9. Corporate taxation shall account for a minimum of forty percent of Internal Revenue Service income.

10. Inflation must be taken into account on the sale of any real or depreciable asset to compute capital losses and gains.

11. Any and all medical expenses, including expenses for so-called “alternative medical treatments,” shall be tax deductible, regardless of an individual’s income.
 

12. Any state that collects a state income tax shall do so as a percentage of the federal return and shall not require a separate return with different rules and exemptions.
 

13. The threshold for the Alternative Minimum Tax8  shall be adjusted annually for inflation, using the date of inception as a baseline.

14. No private debt agency or other corporate entity shall be allowed to collect taxes in the United States.

I. The Food and Drug Adminstration and Environmental Protection Agency

1. The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) mission shall be altered to encourage a non-pharmaceutical approach to medicine. Prevention of disease and the safety of food and pharmaceutical products shall be its primary focus.

2. The FDA shall authorize all pharmaceuticals to be tested for efficacy, toxicity, and overall safety. The FDA shall rely upon the outcome of independent research and not research conducted by or paid for by the manufacturer or associated industry.
 

3. The FDA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Consumer Product and Safety Commission (CPSC) shall authorize independent testing to determine whether a drug or food is safe for human and domestic animal consumption, is non-toxic, is non-polluting, and does not harm the environment. Any drug or food product found to be harmful to humans, animals, or the environment shall not be produced, sold, traded, donated, or exported abroad.

4. The FDA shall not approve for distribution, sale, or marketing any product found to be toxic or unsafe.

5. The FDA shall test the toxicity of food, cosmetics, perfumes, and toiletries within ninety days of submission.
 

6. The FDA and other federal agencies shall be prohibited from regulating or exercising jurisdiction over products that are deemed harmless and non-toxic.

7. The FDA and other federal agencies shall be prohibited from pressing criminal charges against anyone for dispensing or using products that are non-toxic or harmless, and shall be prohibited from confiscating said products.

8. The FDA shall have no jurisdiction over interstate commerce.

J. Social Security

1. The National Social Security Fund shall be protected in perpetuity and shall never become privatized.

2. The legislature shall be prohibited from enacting any budgetary or other legislation that will take funds from Social Security for purposes other than those for which Social Security was intended.