This is the seventh, eighth, and ninth proposals for new amendment to our Constitution I’m hoping Santa will magically bring me Christams morning in order to restore limits to our national government  so that when I tell my kids with a straight face that two of the principles of our Constitution are limited government and federalism.

Proposal #7 – Prohibiting Congressional Entitlements and Limiting Bailouts

Section 1. The Congress shall not provide any Grant or Loan directly to any Person, except Loans to Banks so as to regulate the value of the Money of the United States; nor shall it authorize any Part of the Government of the United States to do the same, notwithstanding outlays drawn from the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds for Persons who contributed directly to said Trust Funds prior to the date this Article is ratified, but thereafter all such Programs and Benefits shall not be administered by the Congress, but by the States or the People respectively.

Section 2. Neither the Congress nor the several States shall abolish or assume any Debt, but this does not preclude them from mandating, in Cases of Bankruptcy, reasonable changes in the Rate of Interest and the Payment Schedule, and granting Deferments for a limited Time.

Section 3. This Article shall take effect within 1 year of it Ratification.

Proposal #8 – Reigning in Congressional Spending by Granting the President Limited Line-Item Veto

Section 1. Whenever the total Amount of the public Debt of the United States at the close of any fiscal Year is greater than the total Amount of such Debt at the close of the preceding fiscal Year, each Representative in the House of Representatives and Senator in the Senate shall forfeit and repay to the United States any and all Payments they received from the United States in that Year that just closed and shall not receive any future Payments from the United States until that Amount is repaid.

Section 2. Whenever the total Amount of the public Debt of the United States at the close of any fiscal Year is greater than the total Amount of such Debt at the close of the preceding fiscal Year, the President may (during the next annual Session of the Congress) in any Bill authorizing the withdrawal of Money from the Treasury, disapprove any Item of Appropriation, or reduce the Amount of any Item of Appropriation without disapproving the remaining Parts of the Bill, provided that no Amount of Money for the operation of the Congress or the Judiciary Department of the United States is affected and provided that the Grants to the several States remain proportional to the most recent Census, he may likewise disprove any such Item of Appropriation without disapproving the remaining Parts of the Bill.

Section 3. In the fore mentioned Case, if any Bill is approved by the President, any Item or Amount of any Item of Appropriation contained therein which is not disapproved shall become Law, while any Item or amount of any Item of Appropriation therein which is disapproved shall not become Law. In such cases he shall, in signing the Bill, designate any Item of Appropriation disapproved, note the Amount remaining of any Item reduced, and return a Copy of the same, with his Objections to the House of Representatives, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and may proceed to reconsider any disapproved or reduced Item of Appropriation; and any such Item of Appropriation shall become Law in the Manner prescribed in the Case of a Bill disapproved by the President.

Proposal #9 – Limiting Executive Regulatory Power, the President’s Recess Appointment Power, and His Power of Clemency.

Section 1. Any Regulation or Order made by the Executive Department of the United States Government under authority granted by the Congress prior to the ratification of this Article shall be null and void if each House of the Congress fails to affirm said Regulation or Order by concurrent Resolution within four years from the date that this Article is ratified.

Section 2. Upon ratification of this article, any Regulation or Order made in a given Term of the Representatives in the House of Representatives by the Executive Department of the United States Government under authority granted by the Congress following the ratification of this Article shall be null and void if each House of the Congress fails to affirm said Regulation or Order by concurrent Resolution before the proceeding Term expires.

Section 3. An Appointment made by the President to fill a Vacancy while the Senate is recessed must be confirmed by the Senate within 30 Days of the End of that Recess, or that Appointment shall be Null and Void and the Position shall be considered Vacant until it can be filled according to the Methods established in this Constitution.

If the Senate fails to confirm an Appointment made when the Senate is in Recess within 30 Days of the End of that Recess, then any rule, decision, or action made by that Appointee under the authority granted to that Position by the laws of the United States or this Constitution shall be Null and Void.

Section 4. Prior to being granted by the President, any Reprieve or Pardon for an Offence against the United States must be recommended by a Committee of the United States House of Representatives selected according to the Rules of the House of Representatives for the Purpose of recommending Reprieves and Pardons.