The iCaucus Principles

iCaucus adheres to the self-evident principle that all elected public officials, at both the state and federal levels, must take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States; and that this oath mandates that all public officials willingly fulfill the constitutionally enumerated responsibilities and powers of their elected office; and that this oath also mandates that all public officials refrain from taking any actions or passing any legislation that is not constitutionally empowered to their elected office.

iCaucus adheres to the self-evident principle as expressed in the 3rd point in the "Code of Ethics for U.S. Government Service, adopted on July 11th, 1958 by the U.S. House of Representatives with the Senate concurring"; which stipulates that any person in government service should "Give a full day's labor, for a full day's pay; giving to the performance of his/her earnest effort and best thought."

The "Unified Fixed Pie Budget" (as proposed by iCaucus and based upon the writings of James Madison in the Federalist Papers) begins with and adheres to the self-evident principle that, except in time of National Emergency, its irresponsible for Government at any level to increase their overall spending if a deficit was incurred in the previous year.

The "Unified Fixed Pie Budget" adheres to the self-evident principle that Congress must weigh the costs and merits of various spending proposals; and must prioritize federal spending within a pre-established finite spending limit.

The "Unified Fixed Pie Budget" adheres to the self-evident principle that it is ineffective to have 3 separate budgets (Presidential, House and Senate) that can only be reconciled "in Conference"; and that having 3 separate budgets is ultimately irresponsible because the entire "Conference Budget Reconciliation" process consistently results in unauthorized items being added into the budget at the last minute with no vetting, debate, and no cost-benefit analysis.

iCaucus adheres to the common sense principle that Congressional appropriations should only be earmarked if they meet the following 4 criteria:

1. The Earmark Request must go through an open vetting process.

2. The Earmark Request must be scrutinized by the committee system; within the required committee time frames and deadlines.

3. The Earmark Request must have an appropriate federal nexus; and may not be requested for projects that are the responsibility of states and/or local communities fund.

4. The Earmark Request must only be for a specific purpose, and cannot be awarded to private individuals or companies thathave not gone through a transparent competitive bidding process.

iCaucus subscribes to the principle that the Congressional appropriations process must be free from the taint of abuse, stains of corruption, cronyism, or shares of "pay to play" type schemes, and free of members of Congress submitting earmark requests in exchange for campaign support or other favored treatment.

iCaucus subscribes to the self-evident principle that the only legitimate purpose of our national taxation policy is the original intent of raising necessary revenues to fund constitutionally enumerated governmnet services. However, itis the contention of iCaucus that the Federal Government has fundamentally changed the original intent and purpose of our national tax policies to be little more than an endless writing and re-writing of favorable tax treatment of one arbitrary group over another. Our nation's tax policies must be returned to their original purpose.

iCaucus subscribes to the self-evident principle that the United States is a Constitutional Republic that is subject to the Rule of Law and the Right to Contract. The "Rule of Law", also called supremacy of law, means that the Law is above everyone and it applies to everyone. Whether governor or governed, rulers or ruled, no one is above the law, no one is exempted from the law, and no one can grant exemption to the application of the law. The "Right to Contract" is the freedom of individuals to bargain among themselves the terms of their own contracts, without government interference.

iCaucus subscribes to the self-evident principle that "Character matters"; that character is the expression of the personality of every individual; and that an individual's character reveals itself in their conduct. Further iCaucus subscribes to the self-evident principle that our elected officials should model and advance the following 9 values in their daily lives and actions: Honesty, Humility, Thrifty, Charity, Sincerity, Moderation, Hard Work, Courage, Personal Responsibility. We ask the same of our volunteers. Further, iCaucus subscribes to the self-evident principle that people are not perfect, that they can make mistakes, that they can learn from them and change their ways; and that before re-gaining public trust a reasonable about of time pass for any person who has made un-principled choices in their past.

iCaucus believes that 10 years is a sufficient period of time to demonstrate a true change of heart and character.