Dear Legislator, On January 21, 2013, AJR 81 and AB 635 were both introduced in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Assembly Joint Resolution 81 applies to Congress, under the provisions of Article V of the Constitution of the United States, for the calling of a convention for proposing amendments, for the limited purpose of requiring the federal government to operate under a balanced budget. Unlike many of the past calls for a balanced budget amendment (BBA), AJR 81 is not limited to a specific amendment but to a specific subject. Assembly Bill 635 relates to the appointment and limitation of delegates to such a convention. However noble this proposed effort to apply to Congress to call an Article V Convention for the purpose of requiring the federal government to operate under a balanced budget (BBA) might be, it would be unlikely to improve the state of the economy. A call to balance the budget could result in higher taxes in order to offset Congress excessive spending, resulting from insufficient or no cuts to spending. There is also the possibility that a BBA would be ignored, like most of the Constitution, due to either the influence of powerful special interest groups or a national emergency, such as a war, like the current and recent U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and other conflicts throughout the Middle East and Africa. In this event, spending would continue to increase and the budget would remain unbalanced. The most important reason for defeating AJR 81 and AB 635 is that a convention for proposing amendments, as outlined in Article V of the Constitution, cannot be limited. Regardless of any stipulations, limitations, or other restrictions that either the Wisconsin State Legislature or even Congress might attempt to impose on the delegates to an Article V convention, the convention process is in actuality unlimited and could lead to unintended but yet harmful changes to the Constitution. The reason why the convention route of Article V was left unlimited in the Constitution is because the Founding Fathers originally intended it to provide a way for future Americans, if ever the need should arise, to abolish the current form of government and replace it with a new form of government and Constitution as stated in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence: ...That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.... Because of this inherent sovereign right of the people an Article V convention cannot be limited, otherwise it would never succeed in empowering the people to make the necessary changes in the Constitution, in case the government should ever become oppressive due to defects in the Constitution. What we need is not for the States to revise the Constitution, but rather to restore and enforce it as our Founding Fathers originally intended. In our present situation, the Constitution is not defective; instead the federal government is not adhering to the Constitution. The fix is not to change the Constitution, but to educate voters to elect more constitutionalists to Congress, who would adhere to it and as a result vote for laws that would bring the federal government back into compliance with the Constitution. Congressional compliance with the Constitution would greatly reduce federal spending and lead to balanced budgets without the need for a BBA. Please be sure to help preserve our Constitution by voting NAY on both AJR 81 and AB 635. Sincerely, Green Bay TEA Party.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 22:43:30 +0000