Twenty-eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state “elected by the people thereof”, for six years, and each Senator shall have one vote. The Electors of each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of state legislatures.

Section1: The Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States is herby repealed.

Section 2: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill vacancies; provided, that the legislature of any state may empower the executive therefore to make temporary appointments until the people fill vacancies by election as legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be construed as to effect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Note: State ratifying conventions are one of the two methods established by Article V of the United States Constitution for ratifying constitutional amendments. Ratifying conventions have only been used for the ratification of the 21st Amendment. All others have been proposed for ratification by the state legislatures. (wikipedia.org)

Special Note: Supreme Court Justice Sacila speaks out against the Seventeenth Amendment !
See, http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/15/scalia-seventeenth/

On Friday, 12/10/'10,Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia joined Senator-elect Mike Lee (R-UT) and Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) in opposing the century-old amendment:
     Scalia called the writing of the Constitution “providential,” and the birth of political science. “There’s very little that I would change,” he said. “I would change it back to what they wrote, in some respects. The 17th Amendment has changed things enormously.”
     That amendment allowed for U.S. Senators to be elected by the people, rather than by individual state legislatures. “We changed that in a burst of progressivism in 1913, and you can trace the decline of so-called states’ rights throughout the rest of the 20th century. So, don’t mess with the Constitution.“
     Justice Scalia’s use of extremist “states’ rights” rhetoric is an ominous sign. Although Scalia has a well-deserved reputation as an ultra-conservative, his record on federal/state power issues is surprisingly sensible. Indeed, his concurring opinion in Gonzales v. Raich could have been written as a blueprint for why President Obama’s Affordable Care Act is constitutional.
     It’s puzzling why Scalia, or anyone else for that matter, would suddenly take a swipe at this entirely uncontroversial amendment — although the Wonk Room offers one possible explanation. Before the Seventeenth Amendment was enacted, corporate interest groups were able to lean on state lawmakers and thus effectively buy U.S. Senate seats. In other words, repealing the Seventeenth Amendment “would be like Citizens United on steroids

The bigger our federal bureaucracy grows, the greater the corruption.
Benefits for undoing five decades of federal power are:

Restore the original intent of U.S. Senators: an advisory board
Cut federal bureaucracy in the Senate and reduce committees, spilling into the Executive Branch.
Restore States guaranteed powers under Amendment Ten.
Give the voters a more direct and powerful voice in who their Senators shall be. ( At present, Senators disappear for six years, until next election cycle.) Voters maintain their direct vote for U.S. Senatorial candidates.
Make Senators accountable to their State Legislators, who have the ability to recall them.
The people's disenchantment with their Senator would be aired locally! Because a U.S. Senator is appointed through a state legislature, that individual is directly responsible to that state's expectations. The distance for affirmative action is as close as any state capitol and its state legislature. Therefore, U.S. Senators would primarily represent their state and the people's need within that state.
All politics is local! Prior to ratifying the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, citizens saw more of their Senators. Each state's citizens' voted for their choice, then state legislatures appointed the voters' choice.. The best know example is the famous Lincoln and Douglas debates. Since Lincoln lost to Douglas, Stephen A. Douglas was appointed as U.S. Senator from the Illinois State legislature.
More Money to the States: An important component that will prove beneficial to the several states is taxes! Each State needs money; better to keep monies at home than to send to the federal government in far away D.C. Allow the voters with in each state to elect officials who can best allocate tax revenues for their individual state
Money is the key factor in growth and it is the key motivator for the several states. Each State needs money, and they need it yesterday. The repeal of the 17^th, as a stand-alone Constitutional Amendment, gets them no money. But a combination where the states control tax money as well as their U.S. Senator necessitates the power and the programs returning to the states. Each States would become a capitalistic entity, competing with one another for business and people’s purchasing power. From a completive, capitalistic perspective, State would reduce their size and scope of their governments.

( see article in National Review:11/15/'10 by Todd Zywicki)

Call for a Constitutional Convention to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment through state legislatures.

From America’s Depression era cowboy, Will Rogers:
“Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?”

“If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?”

Read more on: http://smarteramerica.blogspot.com

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