What do you think about a Constitutional Convention?

It's a scary prospect, since the entire constitution could be
changed...What do you think?

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_f285f474-a39f-11de-9a25-001cc4c002e0.html

The United States faces bankruptcy, as average Americans protest
furiously in tea parties and town hall meetings. Yet Congress and the
administration press ahead with plans spend trillions that they don't
have.

The system is broken. Washington is unresponsive. Politicians use your
money to buy votes through government handouts. The debt piles higher
and higher. Health insurance is important, but the issue pales by
comparison to economic survival.

What Americans fear is utter ruin and what could come in its wake -
widespread poverty, chaos and government control. Freedom itself
depends upon economic security.

Make no mistake: America is teetering on the brink of an abyss, and
that knot in your stomach is shared by millions.

The answer is to get our financial house in order, starting with the
elimination of deficit spending and the balancing of the federal
budget.

But the discipline to do this will not come from President Obama, nor
from Congress, which is a lost cause where fiscal restraint is
concerned. Congress seems capable only of bleeding the middle class
while authorizing greater debt. Both political parties are to blame,
but the so-called "progressives" who now hold power will certainly
never be the authors of a new fiscal discipline. They will not lead us
out of the hole. They are, in fact, aiming for something else.

Congress's record of economic management - especially lately - is the
very definition of irresponsibility. Worse than useless for decades,
Congress has now become a danger. Do not look there for answers; you
won't find them.

States have the power

But if not Congress, who? Who can rescue America from what appears to
be a fatal slide into insolvency?

Look to the states. They've always had the power to assert their will
through a mechanism of the Constitution that the Founding Fathers put
in place for just such an emergency. That mechanism, found in Article
V, has never been used, but it gives states all of the necessary power
to put the nation back on sound footing - economically, and in any
other way that "We the People" see fit.

It's called a constitutional convention, and its purpose is to amend
the Constitution to impose the will of the people when the

system breaks down. Such a convention bypasses Congress entirely. It
is initiated by the states alone. They can force the federal
government to balance the budget in the way they choose, not by
raising taxes.

A vote of two-thirds of the states (34) triggers a convention - in
this case, a convention could be called for the sole purpose of
debating and passing a balanced budget amendment. If three-fourths of
the states (38) subsequently debate and agree to an amendment, that
amendment becomes part of the Constitution, the supreme law of the
land.

Never in the history of this country has fiscal responsibility been
more important. The annual federal budget deficit hit $1.38 trillion
in August, with a month left to go in the fiscal year. That's $1
trillion higher than any year in history. And it's on top of a total
federal debt of $11.6 trillion, which will rise to $13 trillion or
more by 2013 and continue to soar.

The only way to stay solvent will be to raise taxes to crushing
levels, to suffer ruinous inflation or to default on the debt - which
is genuine bankruptcy.

Look back at history, and you'll find that such financial catastrophes
as America faces today have ruined more nations than wars or natural
disasters ever could.

Many Americans now see that the well-being, even the survival, of the
nation are at stake in the financial decisions being made today. That
is why 80 percent of America rates the economy as poor and a majority
are anxious about making ends meet, according to a new Associated
Press-GfK poll. That's why "tea parties" express growing frustration
all over the country and why, at tumultuous town hall meetings, people
grill their elected officials.

People are fearful, and rightfully so.

On Saturday, crowds filled Washington to protest runaway government
spending. Outside observers estimated that between 1 and 2 million
people appeared. Even if the number was a fourth that, it's still huge
- made more staggering by the fact that these were ordinary Americans
who don't normally protest. There was no big organization at work, no
media hype. Yet they showed up to decry irresponsible spending.

And for every person who attended, there were countless counterparts
at home who feel the same way. That march was just the smoke from a
burning fuse. The powder keg is what was once known as the Silent
Majority, people from the mainstream who rose to stop the Vietnam war
and then went back into dormancy.

Now the Silent Majority is beginning to speak again. Anger is building
among millions of ordinary Americans. And when the American people get
mad - as tyrants from George III through Saddam Hussein discovered too
late - watch out.

Path to fiscal health

Fiscal restraint must be imposed on the federal government now for the
good of the country, and the states have the power to impose it. We
may not get another chance. The worst possible course is to continue
down the path of government handouts and bailouts that only increase
debt and sap our freedoms.

Step 1 on the responsible path is to require a balanced federal budget
every year.

Sadly, presidents and Congresses of both parties have failed to stem
the flow of red ink. And there is nothing to indicate that either
party is serious about cutting back on spending now. The states need
to send a message in the most forceful of terms, through our greatest
bulwark of liberty and effective government, the Constitution of the
United States.

Pass a balanced budget amendment by a vote of the states, and cut
Congress out. The states have the power to do this.

Of course, a balanced budget amendment has been discussed in academic
circles before. Politicians, on both sides of the aisle, have been
bringing it up since 1936. In 1982, one version of the amendment was
approved in the Senate but failed in the House. In 1995, the House
OK'd a version, but it was defeated in the Senate. Washington
politicians, it seems, just want to keep the gravy train rolling.

Fortunately, the Constitution clearly empowers the people themselves
(working through their states) to force amendments. The Constitution
gives the people the power to call a new convention, like the one in
1787 and to dictate new rules.

It's been tried before

Though this power is little known now, hundreds of petitions have been
passed by legislatures over the years. And they have worked
indirectly. In the early 20th Century, for example, 30 state
legislatures - one shy of what was then needed - passed petitions
calling for a convention for the direct election of senators. Feeling
the heat, Congress responded by passing the 17th Amendment for that
purpose, and the states subsequently ratified it.

This time, a convention could be called to consider a balanced budget amendment.

In the early 1980s, 32 states passed resolutions calling for a
balanced budget amendment. That's just two short of the 34 needed to
call a convention. Both measures stalled there, however.

So why try it now? Because the situation is dire. The political mood
is favorable. The stars have aligned.

On Oct. 1, 1982, when calls for a balanced budget narrowly failed, the
total debt amassed by the U.S. in more than 200 years was $1.1
trillion. That's less than the debt the government piled up in the
first nine months of this fiscal year. In other words, the idea of a
convention nearly triumphed when the debt was a fraction of what it is
now.

But what worried people then terrifies them today. The time is ripe.
It is time for the states to yank Congress's chain.

The biggest bogeyman of a new constitutional convention is the fear -
unfounded, in our view - that a new convention could get out of
control and end with a total rewrite of the Constitution. We have more
faith in Americans than that. You won't get a three-fourths vote of
approval if wild shenanigans are attempted with our most precious
charter.

Still, any call for a convention must make clear that the purpose is
solely to consider a balanced budget amendment, nothing else.

Second, any proposed amendment must provide a clear basis upon which
budgeting is done, directly limiting deficits while allowing for
genuine emergencies.

Here's a rough draft of what a balanced budget amendment might look like:

"Except in a case of national emergency, Congress shall not budget for
a given year an amount greater than the total revenues actually
collected in the previous year. Congress may approve a budget deficit
in time of national emergency, if a state of emergency is first
declared by the President and if Congress concurs by resolution of
three-fourths of each House; but no budget deficit shall exceed 10
percent of the previous year's actual revenue."

Obligation of Congress

Americans worried about the nation's financial solvency should
immediately begin to push their state legislators toward a
constitutional convention. Once 34 states are on board, Congress is
obliged to call a convention, and would set the dates.

To be sure, there are unknowns, as it's never been done before. Yet
that fact is also energizing. A new convention would be one of the
biggest events in American political history. There would be intense
media and public scrutiny, which is all to the good. Some of
Congress's worst offenses happen when the public isn't paying
attention, or when lawmakers can slip a profitable little clause into
a huge piece of legislation. That could not happen here, not with so
much in the spotlight.

Delegates would be selected from every state. The convention would
meet and settle into the hard work of debate, drafting, compromise and
final passage.

The Constitution has checks and balances for everything, even the
expression of the people's will, and that principle would apply here.
Any approved amendment would go back to Congress, which would then
propose a mode of ratification - a vote of state legislatures, for
example, or state ratifying conventions.

In all but one previous case, proposed amendments have gone to the
state legislatures for ratification. That makes sense, as state
lawmakers are close to the people. Alternatively, Congress could send
the proposed amendment to specially convened ratifying conventions in
the states - like those that followed the original constititutional
convention of 1787. State ratifying conventions were used in the case
of the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition, and that mode could
be used again.

Either choice amounts to a mere detail that won't matter much. If
there's enough energy to create a balanced budget amendment in the
first place, there will be no resistance to ratification.

This entire process is testimony to the genius of the Founders. The
convention process allows the people, acting through the states, to
impose their will on the national government.

There has never been a more important time for Americans to assert themselves.

The idea is not utterly devoid of risk; but neither is the
continuation of reckless, irresponsible government spending. We live
in scary times, but don't forget that those who attended the
convention in Philadelphia in 1787 had never created a nation before;
yet they moved forward. Like them, we put our trust in the people.
Aroused and alarmed, they will do the right thing.

The time has come for the people to speak.

From Article V of the Constitution:

The Congress ... on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds
of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing
Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and
Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the
Legislatures of three fourths of the several States or by Conventions
in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification
may be proposed by the Congress.

Posted in Editorial on Thursday, September 17, 2009 9:30 am Updated: 9:49 am.