The birthright supreme court case is irrelevant to our prosperity. If we were serious about improving things economically, there are better ideas

Photo above – December 25th, 1776 - General George Washington muses to himself: “the first thing I’ll do when I get elected is issue an executive order changing the tax code”.

(Sarcasm alert) THIS is going to save billions? Some kid born in the USA a decade ago – to parents who aren’t citizens or green card holders – should be expelled to a country they’ve never set foot in? THIS is what triggered the first ever presidential attendance at a supreme court session? Can we put a dollars and cents number on what this is worth to the economy?

Citizenship, abortion, school prayer, restroom signage: these are culture war issues. Nothing to do with job creation, a decent wage, and stopping the $39 trillion national debt from drowning us. I’m okay with having the supreme court revisit culture war cases and even overturning past decisions. But culture war obsession isn't going to make a difference to anyone except fringe activists.

America has a well defined process for amending the constitution. A process which politicians seldom use, because its boring and requires actual work. Much easier to give an incendiary speech to the cameras. Recent amendments make clear the self serving nature of constitutional tinkering: The 26th amendment reduced the voting age to 18. The proposed 29th-33rd amendments (never ratified) all tweak the minutiae of who can vote in various state, local, and federal elections, and by what means people can vote, and how early or late. These are rule changes to hold onto power.

Congress - and the 50 state legislatures – are unlikely to consider anything NOT involving next month's paychecks. Actual voters – concerned about their wages and the economy and government debt - might have a different take. Can we put the following amendments up for debate:

1 – Congress cannot be paid, or end the current session, if a budget deadline isn’t met. Keep working at it, guys. You’ll get your back pay when you do your job. The Caribbean is off limits for now.

2 – The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department should defer to congress over T-Bill issuance. Senators and House members should directly own – via floor votes – all future expansions of the national debt. People can see how their representative voted. Important things like the debt our kids will have to pay, and the cost of house should have to meet a higher political standard than the musings of nine rich federal reserve governors in secret meetings.

3 – Federal taxes should only be raised - or reduced - by an of congress. No more presidential executive orders. No more 37 page “rule clarifications” released by IRS bureaucrats who don’t even have to sign their work. If anyone wants taxes changed, convinced congress to write a bill.

4 – States cannot impose an “exit tax” on people who want to move out. Neither can those states offer decades-long tax exemptions to lure corporations from other states. These tax games probably already violate Article 1 of the US constitution, which prohibits tax and tariff wars between the states.

5 – All federal buildings which are vacant for 24 or more months must be sold at auction. This will prevent the government from hoarding vast quantities of unused real estate and allowing it to deteriorate. Let’s allow prospective home buyers and businesses to bid on these things. The new owners will pay taxes on the rehabbed buildings, which the government doesn’t do on stuff it owns. There are currently 7,700 unused federal buildings.

6 – Robust federal protection against bank hacking, identity theft and wire fraud are needed. The biggest threat to our financial well being is no longer Bonnie and Clyde. It’s some guy in the People’s Republic of China Army basement who works all day on breaking and entering our financial systems. Modern warfare is Internet attacks on banks, the electric grid, the water supply, and air traffic control.

I realize there is zero chance that someone will draft amendments on these things. Politicians in 2026 believe the path to re-election involves preventing voter ID, defunding ICE, or keeping gay books out of school libraries. And for some bizarre reason we seem to be okay with this.

I’m just sayin’ . . .


https://www.npr.org/2026/04/01/nx-s1-5754762/trump-supreme-court-birthright-citizenship