I question this statement that "By claiming US citizenship, we VOLUNTARILY place ourselves under the jurisdiction of the federal government..."
Most of us here never, in fact, claimed US citizenship. Instead we achieved this citizenship by simply by being born within the geographical borders of the United States or in its acknowledged possessions overseas, i.e. military bases,etc.
This being the case does the phrase, "...we VOLUNTARILY place ourselves under the jurisdiction of the federal government" still hold true?
The boundaries of the 'United States' government is given in the Constitution at Article 1, section 8, paragraph 17:
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;
So the 'United States' is NOT THE ENTIRE COUNTRY as government would have us believe, because it's legal 'jurisdiction' can only extend to Washington D.C.and any military base or port.... so says the legal contract known as the Constitution.
Our country was not ORIGINALLY constructed with the States in a subservient position to the federal government, but an EQUAL and co-existing one.
The ONLY time the federal government had authority over the states was when it remained in it's specific and enumerated powers outlined in the Constitution.
______________________________________________________
They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please ... Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.
Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on National Bank, 1791
______________________________________________________________
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17, 1782
____________________________________________________________
"When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."
– Thomas Jefferson
--------------------------------------------------------------
Most of us here never, in fact, claimed US citizenship.
You haven't? Do you have a social security number? Do you vote? Do you have a driver's license?
If you've EVER checked that little YES box on ANY government form that says: 'Are you a U.S. citizen', then you have indeed claimed U.S. citizenship and created a legal entity subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. government.
And you did it voluntarily!