The Accountability Amendment

Imagine if the government were a marketplace where taxpayers are the customers.

In theory, government is accountable because we vote, but if a government project does not satisfy the taxpayers, it will probably continue to exist for decades. If an entire agency does not satisfy the taxpayers, then it will probably continue to exist for decades. In practice there is little accountability in government.

In the free market, if a product does not satisfy its customers, it will cease to exist. If an entire business does not satisfy its customers, it will cease to exist. The great thing about the free market is thus accountability.

Imagine a government as accountable as a business.

It occurred to me in the mid 90’s that we could introduce more accountability in government by amending the Constitution with a Freedom Amendment I call the Accountability Amendment.

The right of each taxpaying entity to direct the expenditure of each of its tax dollars paid to the United States government shall not be infringed.

The members of the Congress shall act in good faith to maximize the choice of government expenditures which may be directed by each taxpayer. Any citizen may sue to remove any member of Congress in the same jurisdiction on grounds of failure to act in good faith.

The percentage of government expenditures directed by the taxpayers shall be implemented in 10% increments beginning one year after ratification of this article.

This article may be repealed by a 75% vote of the entire membership of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, thus creating a new Constitutional amendment whose sole content shall directly parallel the first sentence of the 21^st article of this Constitution. The votes in the Senate and the house of Representatives shall have occurred within 10 days of each other.

This article shall not apply to the states.

The government would become a marketplace where taxpayers are the customers. We could choose to give more money to education or to national defense – whichever we think is the best use of our tax dollars.

In order to maximize our choices, not only would different departments within the government compete for our tax dollars, but different projects as well. For example, we could choose to buy more ballistic missile submarines or more strategic bombers instead.

Just like a real free market, multiple agencies could compete with each other and offer solutions to the same problem. In fact, different teams within the same agency could compete and offer different solutions to the same problems.