Experts predict that by the year 2020, 89 percent of the federal budget will be devoted to paying the interest on the national debt and funding Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
There are two approaches to solving this problem: One, Congress could adjust social welfare spending to where the nation could live within its means, maintain a strong defense, and still care for the truly needy.
Or, two: Congress could change the name of the country to the United Hospital & Old Folks Home and keep on spending.
Which choice do you think Congress would prefer?
I thought so, which is why responsible citizens must act before it’s too late. In an interview with The Hill, retiring Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., announced that after he leaves the Senate he intends to put his efforts behind what’s called an Article V Constitutional Convention.
Article V allows two-thirds of the states to call for a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution. A state-led convention would bypass the sclerotic, entrenched Congress that is both profligate when it comes to spending and feckless when it comes to reining in the power of the executive branch.
In the interview, Coburn says he favors amendments that would accomplish four important reforms, “I think we ought to have a balanced budget amendment, I think we ought to have term limits. I think we ought to put a chokehold on regulation and re-establish the powers of the Congress.”
Coburn is not the only conservative leader to endorse this never-used mechanism to amend the Constitution.
Mark Levin has written a book called "The Liberty Amendments" that outlines the process for a state constitutional convention along with the amendments he prefers. Rush Limbaugh supports the idea, along with Michael Farris, Chancellor of Patrick Henry College, and Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance.
Farris points out in the article that Florida, Georgia, and Alaska have joined the effort and “passed a proposal . . . calling for a constitutional convention to address the need for balanced budgets and term limits.”
Farris’ group — and Coburn if he joins — has a goal of an additional 20 state legislatures passing the call in 2015, with enough additional states to reach or surpass 33 joining the effort in 2016. Then Farris would like to hold the convention before the 2016 presidential race.
Naturally those on the left predict the effort will fail if the amendments don’t include a few big-government proposals, too. But that would defeat the purpose. If the goal is more intrusive government, we have a Congress and administration that is eager to give the nation all the government it can afford and then some.
The Article V movement is important for the future of the country. Just the threat may be enough to bring Congress to its senses, but if not the people, acting through the states, can finally start to rein in a government that won’t control itself and controls us too much.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation and chairman of the League of American Voters. Mike is an in-demand speaker with Premiere. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.