Four Ring Circus; the Missed Federal Branch of Government

In Charles Adams’ For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization he points out the biggest failing of modern government is the dual role of appropriation and expenditure ie. taxing and spending. We have seen the rapid and uncontrollable growth of government once it left what was mostly not absolutely the domain of conservative government:
1) Courts for the adjudication of civil disagreements and criminal cases (murder, theft, contract disputes)
2) Internal Security (FBI, Secret Service, Coast Guard, NEST)
3) External Security (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Special Forces, CIA, NSA)

The rapid expansion into Health and Human Services, building stadiums, funding operas, art, etc has led to this uncontrolled beast of a government. This creates an increased likelihood for the corruption in the system. Fewer government contracts would make the misappropriation of scarce funds more difficult. Fewer contracts allows for better oversight public and governmental.

Why so blue Panda Bear? Don’t get depressed. I know of a solution. Now I’m gonna mention the unmentionable. The US Constitution forgot a ring of government. It should be a four-ring not a three-ring circus. Who or what is the forth ring? The ‘Taxuary’ is the forgotten forth-ring.


What the heck is the Taxuary? It simply would function to exclusively raise ALL Government Revenues. It would have the exclusive right to levy all legal taxes be they income, sales, import, export, or common/uncommon fees. In addition they would have the power to Issue Bonds in times of Declared War.

What are the benefits? Most importantly you create an inherent conflict in government. Those that tax can’t spend and those that spend can’t tax. They finally will have to fight each other. No more my bridge to nowhere pork swap for your study of rainforests in Iowa {that’s Jungle to most of you http://www.conway.com/ssinsider/bbdeal/bd010108.htm .} Creating this inherent conflict would encourage each congressman to discover others pork project in order to find additional revenues for his projects be they pork or legitimate.

Whine… well there will still be Department of War/Defense Pork… Yes you right. You can’t get rid of it all but even here thou you will create a modus operandi { http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modus_operandi} to create efficiency of contract awards. The tactical fighter contract in your district demands that the tactical bomber contract in the other district be run in the most efficient manner possible. 535 congressmen would also now be in inherent conflict with each other for these scare funds. Oh they will blame the Taxuary and call them names. Warms my heart to think of it.


Where has this worked before? Funny you should ask. James VI of Scotland/James I of England and Ireland and later his son Charles I both had very restricted rights of raising revenue and had to fight their Parliaments for increased revenues. Eventually leading to the end of Charles I reign, the Monarchy and Charles I himself. The Swiss civilians vote on taxes and elected official pay. {hint they have lower rates}


The Outline of theTaxuary. My first inclination was to elect 1 person from every state to serve on the Taxuary. The hoi polloi {yes I know that reads ‘the the many’ and is redundant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoi_polloi .} would vote every 2 years for a person based on would they or wouldn’t they raise taxes or issue bonds in times of declared war. The Taxuary would NOT be allowed to direct, earmark or spend any money. The Taxuary directs the government to raise revenues and than releases that money to congress for expenditures. I would think that a 1 day monthly meeting of the Taxuary would be sufficient to accomplish the task. I get the feeling that congress would have to meet allot less than presently.

The Taxuary should be given the power to investigate congressional ethics complaints and present violations to the Supreme Court. In addition they would determine the salary of congress at large. The Taxuary pay should be determined by the hoi polloi. Ethics violations by the Taxuary are to be investigated by random civilian grand juries and presented to Supreme Court for adjudication. The Taxuary would also have the additional responsibility of overseeing 3 ‘Independent’ audits of the Government by public accountants. Black Budget items by NSA, Defense, or FBI are to be audited by 1 accountant group consisting of half military and half Civilian no ex-congressman/ administration officials like John Danforth or Hugh Hewitt.

Returning to Congressional Declarations of War would be a nice change. A Declaration of War by the Congress would encourage the Taxuary to increase funds to the Treasury using bonds and/or taxation. This would have an effect of the increasing the likelihood of Congressmen voting for War Declarations. I think some minor fiddling need to be done here. The President should have to ask Congress for the Declaration of War. While the President still has the right to respond militarily; protracted or massive operations that require excessive funding, would inevitably need Declarations of War and Congressional and Taxuary support. I know the Congress would have an increased motivation to declare war {I think it’s safe to say now [Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq] that we need to increase proper constitutional government functions.} Hopefully we could keep excessive/ improper Declarations in check with Popular Vote of the Taxuary. Fearful of being thrown out of office by the masses they would have to tread lightly.


I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express last year so I thought I could design a federal branch of government. I’m looking for ideas. I have played with the idea of having the Governor/ State Congressmen functioning as the Taxuary but my fear is that while the states would function as a check on federal powers they might be perverted by various Federals money sharing shenanigans.


Hopefully I will move this blog over to an exclusive Constitutional Blog site to discuss why Commerce, State, and the Postal Office had to be included in the constitution and yet the HHS, EPA didn’t require an Amendment.