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Category: National Platform

A collection of national platform planks and white papers on important issues from a constitutional perspective.

  • WELFARE

    WELFARE

    The Declaration of Independence declares:

    “all men … are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men …” 

    The Preamble of the US Constitution shows how these rights are to be secured, including: 

    “provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare”. 

    Two clear distinctions should be made here: 

    1. PROVIDE implies actively and financially-supporting.
    2. PROMOTE implies a more passive approach. For example, I’ll promote that we put on a grand feast, but I want you to provide it! 
    3. GENERAL Welfare is not the same as INDIVIDUAL Welfare.
    4. GENERAL Welfare would benefit the people generally. Individual Welfare targets a certain segment of society to benefit, such as the poor. 

    Providing Individual Welfare is NOT authorized in the Constitution. 

    God, who endows us with life, liberty, property, and the right to pursue happiness, also exhorts individuals to care for the needy, the sick, the homeless, the aged, and those who are otherwise unable to care for themselves. 

    America’s welfare crisis is government-induced. 

    Government social and cultural policies have undermined the work ethic, even as the government’s economic and regulatory policies have undermined the ability of our citizens to obtain work. 

    Charity and provision of welfare to those in need are not a Constitutional responsibility of the federal government. 

    Under no circumstances should the taxpayers of the United States be obligated, under penalty of law through forced taxation, to assume the cost of providing welfare for other citizens. 

    Neither should taxpayers be indentured to subsidize welfare for persons who enter the United States illegally. 

    The message of Christian charity is fundamentally at odds with the concept of welfare maintenance as a right. In many cases, welfare provisions by the Federal government are not only misdirected but morally destructive.

    It is the intended purpose of civil government to safeguard life, liberty, and property, not to redistribute wealth. Such redistribution is contrary to the Biblical command against theft. 

    We encourage individuals, families, churches, civic groups, and other private organizations to fulfill their personal responsibility to help those in need. 

  • WAGE AND PRICE CONTROL

    WAGE AND PRICE CONTROL

    The Declaration of Independence declares that the purpose of Government is “to secure these Rights”, these unalienable rights such as Liberty. 

    Note: Nothing in the Constitution, writings of the Founders, nor in logic, can imagine a God-given right to earn a specific wage or buy at a specific price. 

    We deny that civil government has the authority to set wages and prices; doing so is inconsistent with principles of individual liberty and the free market.

  • VETERANS

    VETERANS

    President George Washington stated: 

    “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportionate to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country”. 

    The Constitution Party appreciates the contributions of our servicemen and veterans to the preservation of American freedom. We shall continue to recognize their contributions to the national welfare by providing equitable pay and benefits to our military personnel and generous health, education, and other benefits to veterans. 

    We vigorously resist the attempt by any government agency to nullify or reduce earned benefits to veterans and their survivors, including but not limited to, compensation, pensions, education, and health care.

  • TERRORISM AND PERSONAL LIBERTY

    TERRORISM AND PERSONAL LIBERTY

    The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Because we will refer to the Fourth and Fifth amendments, let us read them in their entirety. 

    Amendment IV: 

    “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” 

    Amendment V: 

    “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” 

    Note: there is no exception to these rights provided for war or public danger. 

    Article 1, Section 9, Clause 2: 

    “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” 

    Note: The threat of terrorism has not been claimed to be a rebellion or an invasion. 

    America is engaged in an undeclared war with an ill-defined enemy (terrorism), a war that threatens to be never-ending and that is being used to vastly expand government power, particularly that of the executive branch, at the expense of the individual liberties of the American people. 

    The “war on terrorism” is serving as an excuse for the government to spend beyond its income, expand the Federal bureaucracy, and socialize the nation through taxpayer bailouts of the airlines, subsidies to the giant insurance corporations, and other Federal programs. 

    We deplore and vigorously oppose legislation and executive action that deprive the people of their rights secured under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments under the guise of “combating terrorism” or “protecting national security.”

    Examples of such legislation are the National Security Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, the proposed Domestic Securities Enhancement Act (colloquially known as “Patriot II”), the Military Commissions Act, the National Defense Authorization Act, and especially the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. 

    We further oppose any other governmental action that would deprive persons of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. 

    • The National Security Act is used by the federal government as a shroud to prevent the American people and our elected officials from knowing how much and where our tax dollars are spent on covert operations around the world. The National Security Act prevents the release of Executive Orders and Presidential Decision Directives, e.g., PDD 25, to the American people and our elected representatives. Not only are many of these used to thwart justice in the name of national security, but some of the operations under this act may threaten our very national sovereignty. 
    • The USA PATRIOT Act permits arrests without warrants and secret detention without counsel, wiretaps without court supervision, searches and seizures without notification to the individual whose property is invaded, and a host of other violations of the legal safeguards our nation has historically developed according to principles descending from the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Since we will no longer have a free nation while the federal government (or the governments of the several states, as the federal government may authorize) can violate our historic rights under such laws, we call for the rejection of all such laws and the ceasing of any such further proposals including the aforementioned Domestic Securities Enhancement Act. 
    • The National Defense Authorization Act gives authority to the President of the United States to have persons arrested, including U.S. citizens, without a warrant, without a trial, indefinitely. 

    We support the repeal of the PATRIOT ACT and the FISA Court, and a permanent ban on NSA domestic spying, including using other agencies, banks, and private communications or internet companies. 

    For criminal activities only, federal law enforcement, investigatory, and intelligence shall obtain a warrant, which can only be kept sealed for 7 days. 

    We support the strict provisions of law that prohibit federal or state governments from hiding illegal actions behind the claims of State Secrecy or National Security or by classifying such activity as secret in any form. 

    The Constitution Party opposes all violent acts of sedition, treason, and covert guerrilla warfare conducted on U.S. soil. 

    Individuals responsible for these acts must be punished for their crimes, including the infliction of capital punishment where appropriate. 

    In responding to terrorism, however, the United States must avoid acts of retaliation abroad which destroy innocent human lives, creating enmity toward the United States and its people; and in accord with the views of our Founding Fathers, we must disengage this nation from the international entanglements which generate foreign hatred of the United States, and are used as the excuse for terrorist attacks on America and its people. 

    The ‘war on terrorism” is not a proper excuse for perpetual U.S. occupation of foreign lands, military assaults on countries that have not injured us, or perpetual commitment of taxpayer dollars to finance foreign governments. 

  • TAXES

    TAXES

    The Constitution, in Article I, Section 8, gives Congress the power: 

    “To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States.” 

    In Article I, Section 9, the original document made clear that: 

    “No Capitation, or other direct Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census of Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” 

    It is moreover established that: 

    “No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.” 

    Since 1913, our Constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property have been abridged and diminished by the imposition on each of us of Federal income, payroll, and estate taxes. This is an unconstitutional Federal assumption of direct taxing authority.

    The Internal Revenue Service is the enforcement arm of the Federal government’s present unjust tax system. Citizens, both in groups and as individuals, have repeatedly sought responses from the IRS bureaucracy as to the basis for the agency’s tax policies and procedures. No answers have been forthcoming, although a responsible government must be answerable to the people and has a duty to those it is supposed to serve.

    We propose legislation to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and will veto any authorization, appropriation, or continuing resolution that contains any funding whatsoever for that illicit and unconstitutional agency. 

    We are opposed to the flat-rate tax, national sales tax, and value-added tax proposals that are being promoted as an improvement to the current tax system. 

    The Sixteenth Amendment does not provide authority for an unapportioned direct tax. 

    The Constitution Party intends to replace the current tax system of the U.S. government (including income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate taxes) with a tariff-based revenue system supplemented by excise taxes.

    THE STATE-RATE TAX PROPOSAL

    To the degree that tariffs on foreign products, and excises, are insufficient to cover the legitimate Constitutional costs of the federal government, we will offer an apportioned “state-rate tax” in which the responsibility for covering the cost of unmet obligations will be divided among the several states in accordance with their proportion of the total population of the United States, excluding the District of Columbia. 

    If a state contains 10 percent of the nation’s citizens, it will be responsible for assuming payment of 10 percent of the annual deficit. The effect of this “state-rate tax” will be to encourage politicians to argue for less rather than more federal spending and less state spending as well. 

    CORPORATE TAX

    To the extent permitted by the Constitution, we believe that the taxation of corporations is an appropriate source of government revenue. 

    The Supreme Court has defined “income” as a “gain or increase arising from corporate activity or privilege.” People are not corporations, and corporations need not be treated as “people” for the purposes of taxation.

    THE INCOME TAX AMENDMENT

    There is substantial evidence that the Sixteenth Amendment was never legally ratified. When elected, we will act to cease the collection of direct Federal personal income taxes. 

    We support ratification of the Liberty Amendment, which would repeal the Sixteenth Amendment and provide that “Congress shall not levy taxes on personal incomes, estates, and/or gifts.” 

    EXCISE TAXES

    We support the use of motor fuel excise taxes, at rates not in excess of those currently imposed, to be used exclusively for the erection, maintenance, and administration of Federal highways. These taxes should never be used for “demonstration projects”, mass transit or for other non-highway purposes. 

    We support the use of excise taxes to curb the use of tax dollars for media advertising, and to provide so called “tax abatements”, “tax incentives” and “economic development grants,” which are pretexts to raid the public treasury and rob the workingman for the benefit of wealthy interests favored by the politicians.

  • TARIFFS AND TRADE

    TARIFFS AND TRADE

    Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution states that Congress shall have the power: 

    “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations.” 

    Congress may not abdicate or transfer to others these Constitutional powers, including the President of the United States. We oppose the unconstitutional transfer of authority over U.S. trade policy from Congress to agencies, domestic or foreign, which improperly exercise policy-setting functions with respect to U.S. trade policy. 

    We oppose the unconstitutional transfer of authority over U.S. trade policy from Congress to agencies, domestic or foreign, which improperly exercise policy-setting functions with respect to U.S. trade policy. 

    We favor the abolition of the Office of Special Trade Representative, and insist on the withdrawal of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and all other agreements wherein agencies other than the Congress of the United States improperly assume responsibility for establishing American trade policies. 

    Article I, Section 8 provides that duties, imports, and excises are legitimate revenue-raising measures on which the United States government may properly rely. 

    We support a tariff-based revenue system, as did the Founding Fathers, which was the policy of the United States during most of the nation’s history. In no event will the U.S. tariff on any foreign import be less than the difference between the foreign item’s cost of production and the cost of production of a similar item produced in the United States. The cost of production of a U.S. product shall include, but not be limited to, all compensation, including fringe benefits paid to American workers and environmental costs of doing business imposed on business by federal, state, and local governments.

    Tariffs are not only a constitutional source of revenue, but, wisely administered, are an aid to the preservation of the national economy.

    Since the adoption of the 1934 Trade Agreements Act, the United States government has engaged in a free trade policy which has destroyed or endangered important segments of our domestic agriculture and industry, undercut the wages of our working men and women, and totally destroyed or shipped abroad the jobs of hundreds of thousands of workers. This free trade policy is being used to foster socialism in America through welfare and subsidy programs. 

    We oppose all international trade agreements that have the effect of diminishing America’s economic self-sufficiency and of exporting jobs, the loss of which impoverishes American families, undermines American communities, and diminishes America’s capacity for economic self-reliance and the provision of national defense. 

    We see our country and its workers as more than bargaining chips for multinational corporations and international banks in their ill-conceived and evil New World Order. 

    We reject the trade concept of normal trade relations (Most Favored Nation status), used to curry favor with regimes whose domestic and international policies are abhorrent to decent people everywhere and which are in fundamental conflict with the vital interests of the United States of America. 

    We strongly oppose the unconstitutional “Trade Promotion Authority,” which transfers the establishment of trade policy from Congress to the Executive branch of government. 

    In the name of free trade, multi-national corporations have been given tax breaks by the U.S. government, which are not available to American businesses, and the money extracted from U.S. taxpayers has been used by the government to subsidize exports and encourage businesses to move abroad. Such improprieties must cease. 

    The United States government should establish a firm policy that U.S. or multinational businesses investing abroad do so at their own risk. 

    There is no obligation by our Government to protect those businesses with the lives of our service personnel or the taxes of our citizens.

    In the area of national security, foreign interests have been abetted in gaining access to America’s high-tech secrets under the guise of commercial enterprise. 

    We propose that technology transfers that compromise national security be made illegal and urge that all violators be prosecuted. 

    We demand that all weapons systems, military uniforms, and equipment purchased for the American military be domestically produced in their entirety, along with all their component parts. 

    We oppose the practice of any officer of the United States government, or spouse thereof, who, subsequent to Federal government employment is employed to represent a foreign government or other foreign entity, public or private, for purposes of influencing public opinion or policy on matters affecting U.S. trade with such foreign government or entity. 

  • STATEHOOD

    STATEHOOD

    US Constitution, Article I Section 8 Clause 17: 

    “Congress shall have power …To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, Dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings…” 

    Article IV Section 4: 

    “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” 

    Article IV Section 4 Clause 3:

    “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union.” 

    Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (re-enacted under Constitutional authority in 1789) defined that all new states appropriately admitted will enter the nation on an equal footing with the original 13 states. 

    We oppose any effort to confer statehood on the District of Columbia or any representation in Congress comparable to that of an independent state in the federal union. 

    We oppose efforts to confer statehood upon the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or expand statehood beyond the current fifty states. 

    We acknowledge that each state’s membership in the Union is voluntary. 

    We support the equal footing doctrine, co-equal with the original thirteen states, for all states coming into and having entered the Union as states. 

    We call for a return to the states and to the people all lands which are held by the federal government without authorization by the Constitution. 

  • STATE SOVEREIGNTY

    STATE SOVEREIGNTY

    The Tenth Amendment states: 

    “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” 

    Note: The Constitution delegated few, enumerated powers to the Federal Government, reserving all remaining powers to the States and the people. Thus, powers of the Federal were the exception. 

    Our federal republic was created by joint action of the several states. It has been gradually perverted into a socialist machine for federal control in the domestic affairs of the states.  

    The federal government has no authority to mandate policies relating to state education, natural resources, transportation, private business, housing, health care, ad infinitum.  

    The states are the sovereigns who possess supremacy over all things not delegated to the general (federal) government within the Constitution, and they possess the full authority of oversight over the Constitution. 

    The General Defense and Welfare, Commerce, Necessary and Proper, and Supremacy clauses are not ambiguous opportunities for the general government to assume new roles, responsibilities, powers, and properties (RRPP).  These clauses only apply to the RRPPs enumerated in the Constitution and its ratified amendments, and treaties constitutionally ratified.  All RRPPs being exercised that cannot be found within the Constitution and its ratified amendments are violations of the Constitution and usurpation of the states’ RRPPs and sovereignty. 

    Only the states possess the authority to audit the Constitution for compliance and enforcement.  The states must validate all RRPPs that have been established in compliance with the Constitution. 

    If there is no amendment for the RRPPs being exercised (i.e., department, agency, office, or administrative entity) then these RRPPs and entities are direct violations of the Constitution. 

    We call upon the states of the Union to initiate this constitutional review process and provide clear directives to the general government requiring that they produce the necessary legislative measures to disband and dissolve all unconstitutional RRPPs.  The review only requires one state to initiate and call for the Constitutional review.

  • SOCIAL SECURITY

    SOCIAL SECURITY

    The Declaration of Independence declares: 

    “all men … are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men …” 

    The Preamble of the US Constitution shows how these rights are to be secured including: 

    “provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare.” 

    Two clear distinctions should be made here:

    • PROVIDE implies actively and financially supporting.
    • PROMOTE implies a more passive approach. For example, “I’ll promote that we put on a grand feast, but I want you to provide it! “ 
    • GENERAL Welfare is not the same as INDIVIDUAL Welfare. General Welfare would benefit the people as a body generally.
    • INDIVIDUAL Welfare targets a certain segment of society to benefit, such as the poor. 

    Social Security is a form of individual welfare not authorized in the Constitution and should be repealed. We advocate PHASING OUT the entire Social Security program, while continuing to meet the obligations already incurred under the system, limited to the total contribution of each individual. 

    Until the current Social Security system can be responsibly phased out, we propose that: 

    • The Social Security tax must not be a “rainy day” fund that politicians can pirate or from which they can borrow to cover their errors and pay for their excesses. 
    • Individuals who have contributed to Social Security will be allowed to withdraw those funds and transfer them into an IRA or similar investments under the control of the individual contributor. 
    • Any merger between the U.S. Social Security System and that of any foreign country is banned, so the distribution of benefits will not go to persons who have not qualified for payments under American law as legal residents. 
    • Earning limitations on persons aged 62 and over be removed, so that they may earn any amount of additional income without placing their benefits at risk. 

    We support the right of individuals to choose between private retirement and pension programs, either at their place of employment or independently. 

  • SANCTITY OF LIFE

    SANCTITY OF LIFE

    The Declaration of Independence states: 

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

    We affirm the God-given legal personhood of all human beings, from fertilization to natural death, without exception. 

    The first duty of the law is to protect innocent life created in the image of God. No level of civil government may legalize or fund the taking of life without justification. Legalizing the termination of innocent life of the born or unborn, whether by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, or suicide, is a direct violation of their unalienable right to life. 

    As to matters of rape and incest, we empathize with those abused and assert the need to provide immediate protection and care in a safe environment. Instead of the further violence of abortion, the mother and the child should be provided with compassionate care. We find it unconscionable to take the life of an innocent child for the crimes of his father. 

    We oppose the distribution and use of all abortifacients. 

    We oppose the use of third-party assisted reproduction that harms pre-born persons created in the process, involves surrogacy, or involves eggs or sperm from donors other than the spouse. 

    All funding, statutes, and regulations authorizing biomedical research involving human embryos for cloning and human enhancement must be repealed. 

    Constitution Party members who serve in elected and appointed positions are committed to the following: 

    In office, we shall only appoint to the judiciary and other positions of judicial and executive authority qualified individuals who publicly acknowledge and commit themselves to the legal personhood of all human beings. 

    In addition, we will do all that is within our power to encourage federal, state, and local government officials to protect the sanctity of the life of the pre-born through legislation, executive action, and judicial enforcement of the law of the land. We oppose the use of tax-payer funds at any level of government to support any local, state, federal, or foreign government entity or any other private organization or quasi-government entity, foreign or domestic, that advocates, encourages, or participates in the practice of abortion. 

    STATE VS. FEDERAL AUTHORITY

    Article IV of the Constitution guarantees to each state a republican form of government. Therefore, although a Supreme Court opinion is binding on the parties to the controversy as to the particulars of the case, it is not a political rule for the nation. As Roe v Wade was an illegitimate usurpation of authority, violating the natural right to life, so are all state laws that allow the destruction of innocent human life, born or unborn.

    We affirm both the authority and duty of Congress to limit the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in all cases involving the personhood of all human beings in accordance with the U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 2. 

    We condemn the misuse of federal laws against pro-life advocates and strongly urge the repeal of statutes like the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act as an unconstitutional expansion of federal power into areas reserved to the states or people by the Tenth Amendment.