E-Newsletter No. 81 September 2020
These past few months, we have been writing about what’s wrong with the federal government and what We-the-People should do to fix these problems. Unfortunately, the political elites in Washington DC have very little incentive to make the changes that are needed. But the Constitution does include Article V, which discusses two methods that can be used to amend the Constitution and make “structural” changes regarding the operation of the federal government. One method is for Congress to pass a proposed amendment and send it to the states for ratification. This is the method that has been used so far for each of the 27 amendments that have been made to the Constitution.
But what happens if Congress doesn’t want to make the changes that are needed? And what happens when the federal government has grown to a point where it has become overly intrusive and coercive? Fortunately, during the Constitutional Convention in 1787, George Mason, a delegate from Virginia, anticipated the situation that we are now facing today. He put forward a solution that was incorporated into Article V. The second method to amend the Constitution is to have two-thirds of the states (34 states) pass a pre-defined resolution to call a Convention of States, to draft proposed amendment(s) that address the issue(s) listed in the resolution.
Currently fifteen states have approved calling such a convention. We encourage you to go to the website www.conventionofstates.com and learn more about the resolution that has been passed by these fifteen states. The resolution calls for preparing proposed amendments that would impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.
When our Foundation was started in 2013, our primary focus was on the federal government’s growing debt problem. We have always pushed for Term Limits as part of the solution to this problem. However, over the course of the past few years, it now appears that the most important “plank” of the resolution is limiting the power and jurisdiction of the federal government.
Unfortunately, it will be some time yet before such a convention can be held. So in the meantime, we have some very critical decisions that need to be made in the upcoming elections in November. The essence of the question has now become a choice between Big Government collectivism versus an individual’s Freedom and Liberty. We have added a new Conversation Piece to our Foundation’s website entitled “Left / Right Choices” –
http://www.f2ppr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Left-Right-Choices.pdf
Next month, we will discuss how implementing the recommendations in The 2020 Initiative could also serve to fix a lot of what is wrong with the federal government.
US Debt Clock – – August 1st – $80,525 per citizen / September 1st – $80,888