Why should there be a 435 seat cap in the House of Representatives?

This is something I never really thought about until I recently watched Tom Woods speaking at the Mises Institute in which he was making the case for secession and decentralization. He also talked about the structure of the House of Representatives which is caped at 435 members regardless the population changes. This got my thought process going. Why is it the House of Representatives needs to be capped at 435 members? As of 2014, average pop. per congressional House district is 713,000. Under that model, cities like LA or NYC have lots of representatives with the size of the district being very small.

To contrast that, a state like Kansas where it’s 1st congressional House district (represented by Tim Huelskamp) covers at least two-thirds of the entire state. Under this setup, entire rural communities can be ignored in favor of the urban areas. Tom Woods said in the video if this system were applied in the 1790s, then there’d be total of 4 members of the House. In reverse, under the old system there’d be over 10,000 members of the House of Representatives with each district made up of roughly 32,000 people.

Now a lot of people would probably be hesitant to endorse a 10,000 member body so I’ll be modest and say maybe 80,000 people per district. That’d be 4,000 members in total. Point is that there should at least some consideration for reform in how House congressional districts are shaped. Because under this current where there’s on average of 713,000, some people particularly in rural areas can be left behind and ignored by their Representative. If the average pop. per district were let’s say 55,000, then here in Oklahoma my town of Bartlesville and the surrounding areas of Dewey and Copan would be eligible for their own Representative in Congress. Whereas now we’re currently part of the 1st district that includes Tulsa.

Not saying the House has to be made up of 10,000 Reps, rather membership doesn’t have to be limited to 435 members. Something like 1,000 would be better and represent areas that would otherwise be ignored by politicians. Maybe more liberty lovers could be elected a bigger difference could be made in restraining spending and the size, scope of govt. Just saying

What do you think? Anything I need to improve upon? Let me know in the comments section below. Have a great day and God bless!

Crosspost from Liberty.me.

New Year’s Resolution for the Liberty Movement

Note: This is a crosspost from Liberty.me

As 2015 dawns, I’ve decided to list some priorities for the liberty movement for this new year.

1. Stop this endless out of control federal government and president. As the GOP takes control of Congress, their first acts should be to override this administration’s unconstitutional executive orders on immigration. While I in principle favor open borders, these times are not the right conditions for that and most certainly this was approached completely in the wrong way. The GOP doesn’t seem so eager to override the executive orders so this takes us to the next priority.

2. Replace Boehner as Speaker with somebody else with ten times the balls to defend the constitution. My two choices are either Justin Amash or Raul Labrador both of which are strongly affiliated with the libertarian cause. Raul Labrador (ID-01) had earlier this year ran for the post of House Majority Leader to succeed recently ousted Representative Eric Cantor from VA which was ultimately won by then Whip Kevin McCarthy of CA who since has proven to be an establishment lapdog. If not either of my suggestions, other acceptable alternatives would be Tom McClintock (CA), Ted Poe (TX) or Jeb Hensarling (also TX). All of them are better choices than reelecting Boehner. #FireBoehner

3. Further work to be done at the state level. This past cycle, stalwart Governors Scott Walker of WI, Rick Snyder of MI were re elected to 2nd terms despite much effort by public-sector unions for their pushing of collective bargaining power restrictions (most notably Rick Snyder’s successful push in making union stronghold MI into the 24th right-t0-work state). Not only that, but Republican Governors were elected in deep-blue states of IL, MA and MD on campaigns of restraining spending and holding down taxes. Overall the GOP did very well in the governorships picking up a net of 2 seats to many surprises as well as taking control of an historic of state legislatures at a number of 31 (overall GOP controlled states remain unchanged at 24). With that the liberty movement can exercise its muscles at the state level in cutting taxes, pulling back regulations and also maybe in pushing for marijuana decriminalization. Which brings us to the next priority.

4. Further legalizing marijuana by aiming at the state legislatures. AK, OR and Washington, D.C. joined with CO and WA State to legalize recreational marijuana use. This is a perfect opportunity to push for recreational or at least medical marijuana in numerous state legislatures. The NH State House became the first legislative body to pass recreational marijuana in the nation, though that measure failed in the Senate so that was supplemented with a medical marijuana bill. The RI legislature is another example that’s going to consider passing recreational pot this coming legislative session. FL had an amendment proposal for medical marijuana on the ballot which an overwhelming majority but failed to reach the necessary three-fifths margin to actually pass. There was also proposals for both medical and recreational marijuana that failed to make ballot here in Oklahoma (and now my state attorney general is suing CO along with NE cause they have legal pot). I’ve only seen a couple of polls of voters here on marijuana. One I saw 65 percent were opposed to recreational marijuana but 71 percent were in favor of medical usage.

5. Cut, cut and cut taxes. States such as KS, WI and MI have passed major tax cuts boosting their state economies. Others have also cut taxes like my own Oklahoma (not quite to my full satisfaction but it’s something at least). And based on how much more leeway the GOP gained in the midterms, there’s gonna be more of that happening. Keep your eyes peeled.

6. Time to introduce proposals to privatize marriage at the state level. It’s pretty much the consensus now that same-sex marriage will be a national reality sometime in the near future (whether it’s the Supreme Court or continual rulings from lower courts is yet to be seen). For the traditional right this should be a terrific opportunity to join up with the libertarian/classical liberal movement in the state legislatures in passing proposals to withdraw state responsibilities in marriage. Though so far they’re only digging in further which won’t do them much good in the long term as all they’re doing is helping the progressives advance the power of the State. A state legislator did introduce a measure in my own state of OK after the first federal judge invalidated our constitutional amendment which was eventually overturned when the Supreme Court declined to review the 9th circuit decision. Though the bill unfortunately didn’t get anywhere and the legislator whose name was Mike Turner ran for and lost the GOP primary for the 5th House district set in the OKC area and forfeited then vacated his seat last month after only one term in the State House. Maybe somebody else will introduce a similar measure who knows. There was also a legislator in ID who proposed an idea but didn’t actually author  a bill. Personally I’d love to see less talking and more legislation, but we’ll just have to see.

7. Expanding of gun rights. While gun rights have been vastly expanded in the past several years, there’s still some work to be done. In states like WV where the GOP won control of the legislature for the 1st time in 8 decades, expanding of gun rights will probably be on the agenda along with cutting taxes and curtailing regulations. Keep eyes open.

8. Last but not least, AUDIT THE FED. There’s no reason not to pass a bill as it’s always done so overwhelmingly in the House drawing strong support from the right and the left. Dipshit Harry though has always prevented it from coming to the floor of the Senate for a vote (guess he forgot this). Though now that he’s finally lost his job as Senate Emperor, an audit the Fed bill should pass just as easily in the Senate as it has in the House. We should also propose eliminating it, though that’s a little bit down the road still.

Well what do you think? Is there anything I missed or should improve upon? Please give me some feedback in the comments section below. Have a great day and a happy new year!