Articles

As the federal government has become more autocratic and dismissive of citizen petitions, interest in the petition process has waned. The unprecedented levels of debt incurred by the federal government in recent years have triggered renewed interest in direct democracy. Citizen groups are now challenging the failure of Congress to record and count these state petitions.

We should expect our European allies in NATO to pursue their own interests and protect their sovereignty. They may decide that NATO is no longer in their interests and end the alliance. They will certainly not participate in a NATO alliance in which the United States launches war without warning or consultation. If the European countries decide to continue the alliance, it will require a fundamental change to the organization’s governing structure.

If current fiscal trends continue, the greatest threat to American prosperity won’t come from abroad; rather, it will come from Washington’s inability to control its own spending. For decades, federal outlays have grown faster than the incomes of the people who fund them. The result is a debt trajectory that compounds silently but relentlessly, shifting the burden of today’s decisions onto future generations. This is not just unsustainable, it is unjust. Economists have long

We have learned a great deal from the governing structures created to guarantee safe passage for shipping through other straits, including the Suez Canal. The 1888 Constantinople Convention guaranteed safe passage through the Suez Canal in peace and war. The Suez Canal Authority was created to administer the treaty. Since the Suez Crisis, all nations have recognized this governance structure’s neutrality as the legal framework for access to the canal.

For decades, incomes of families in the upper middle class have grown more rapidly than that for middle-income families. This decompression of incomes has resulted in greater income inequality, and for many middle-income families, the gateway to the upper middle class has been closing. Loss of upward mobility and decompression of incomes is a major source of dissatisfaction and conflict in American society.

The Affordable Property Tax Cap Amendment could restore the upward mobility dream of homeownership for low- and middle-income families without cutting property taxes needed in our federalism system to fund education and other public services. Citizens could petition their state legislators in 34 states and Secretary of State in 16 States to place the Amendment on the next ballot. In 16 initiative petition states, voters could E-Sign petitions authenticating their signatures.

For several decades, the United States has been incurring unsustainable levels of debt, which has now reached $38 trillion. U.S. debt is projected to continue to grow at an unsustainable rate, exceeding our national income by midcentury. The rate of growth in U.S. government debt will soon exceed the economy’s growth rate, the ultimate test of debt sustainability.

Contrary to President Donald Trump’s views, the U.S. does not need to own Greenland to defend it. For decades, our national security has been strengthened by cooperative agreements with Greenland, Denmark and other NATO nations extending back to the Second World War.

Prosperity for US Foundation leaders are encouraging the President to propose a budget and to veto any legislation that increases federal spending beyond income growth and to use the State of the Union Address to challenge governors, federal, and state lawmakers to adopt similar guardrails.