King proposes constitutional amendment

U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-IA 4) re-introduced two bills related to the Constitution today. The Fourth District Republican, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee’s Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee in the new Congress, has introduced the bills in previous congresses.

The first, House Resolution 140, is titled The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2015, and is meant to rein in what he calls the “anchor baby agenda” by clarifying the 14th Amendment and recognizing the 14th Amendment’s jurisdiction clause.

“A century ago, it didn’t matter very much that a practice began that has now grown into a birthright citizenship, an anchor baby agenda,” he said. “When they started granting automatic citizenship on all babies born in the United States, they missed the clause in the 14th Amendment that says, ‘And subject to the jurisdiction thereof.'”

King said the practice of providing automatic citizenship to any child born in the United States has grown out of proportion. Today, he added, between 340,000 and 750,000 babies are granted automatic U.S. citizenship, even though both of their parents are in the country illegally.

“That has got to stop,” he said. “I know of no other country in the world that does that. My Birthright Citizenship Act of 2015 fixes it, clarifies the 14th Amendment and it recognizes the clause, ‘And subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’ This Congress needs to Act.”

King’s second bill, House Joint Resolution 16, would repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. It was enacted in 1913 to grant Congress the power to levy a tax on income.

“The federal government has the first lien on all productivity in America,” he said. “Ronald Reagan once said, ‘What you tax, you get less of.’ Right now we tax all productivity. We need to turn that completely around and put the tax on consumption. That is why we need to repeal the 16th Amendment, which authorizes the income tax. Replacing the current income tax with a consumption tax will ensure that productivity is not punished in our country, but rewarded.”