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Pros And Cons Of A More Perfect Constitution

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Part I: Why Didn’t I (or They) Think of That? Though all 23 proposals in A More Perfect Constitution make a compelling case to help mend the flaws of today’s government, there are two that stand out that will greatly improve our country. In chapter one, Sabato begins to explain the national debt stating that “these numbers matter greatly for the future of the nation”- and that they do. In just six years, “America’s total liabilities and unfunded commitments…have soared from about $20 trillion to about $50 trillion” (150). The topic of debt and the budget eventually leads to his proposal of a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA), which basically states that congress could not spend more than its revenue. Though the BBA fell one vote short in the …show more content…

“The presidency has become the premier branch of government, even though it is listed second in the constitution,” says Sabato (198). “Presidents made clear that in their view they had full authority to make war whether Congress agreed or not, and that they reserved the right to move forward in the case of a contrary decision by the legislative branch,” thus backing his decision of limiting war-making powers of the President and expanding them to Congress instead (Sabato 199). Sabato notes examples of “police actions” by presidents in the past that includes Johnson’s Vietnam War, Clinton’s entry into Haiti and Bosnia and George W. Bush’s wars in Afghanistan (199). Each example given was a decision based on their judgment with no or very little advice from Congress, and even if they were to consult Congress on such decisions very few would listen. Though the Constitution gives equal war-making powers to both Congress and the president, it’s not always that …show more content…

One of the most essential clauses to America today is written in the fourteenth amendment, the Equal Protection Clause. Cornell University defines the Equal Protection Clause as a clause that “…prohibits states from denying any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The idea of the clause is not meant “to provide "equality" among individuals or classes but only "equal application" of the laws” (Equal

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