A Radical Proposal

Resolved: Congress shall make no law.

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What?

Oh, you're waiting for the rest of it -- as in the First Amendment, which begins, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…"?

Sorry to disappoint you. But that is my proposal: For its full session, Congress shall make no law. Period. Not one. Not a big one, not a small one. None.

Instead, I propose that Congress look over every law that it has passed since the full ratification of the Constitution, and evaluate whether that law really needs to be on the books.

Why would I suggest that? Because the United States suffers from far too many laws -- jurisrrhea -- and we can get rid of many, if not most, of those laws and not only not suffer ill effects, but probably see a sudden upsurge in prosperity.

How would this work? I don't know all the proper procedures, but I'd like to suggest a few general guidelines for the process.

First, this freeze on lawmaking would of course not affect the power of Congress to declare war under the terms provided for that in the Constitution.

Second, because there are in general too many laws, a two-thirds majority (67% of all those voting) would be required to keep a law as it is, unchanged. This restriction is so strict in an attempt to reduce the chances of partisanship bias (whichever party controls Congress, if either, at the time the review begins) and instead focus on the laws that are truly necessary and beneficial to the country and its citizens.

Third, if a clause or article of the Constitution has been affected (read: changed and/or mangled) by an Amendment passed after 1789, that Amendment should be subject to the same analysis, and possibly even re-submitted to the People for ratification. (Without going into detail, I'm thinking specifically of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments, but the principle applies in general as well.)

Finally and most importantly, each and every Representative and Senator should be given a copy of the pertinent sections of the Constitution -- say, Article I, Section 8, which enumerates the powers of Congress (with a bolded reminder that just because Congress has the power doesn't mean they have to exercise the power); Article I, Section 9, which places restrictions on actions of Congress; a boldfaced reminder of Article VI, Clause 3, which reminds the good Congress members that they are bound by oath to uphold the Constitution; and the Bill of Rights. Those texts will be the test against which all laws are measured.

Perhaps the most important text for Congress to refer to during this exercise is the Tenth Amendment, which 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."

It's time Congress remembered that and focused their lawmaking (or in this case, law-revoking) efforts on those powers that it legitimately has.