REAL News for REAL People
Beware: GOP Groups Support Article V Convention of States. Do Your Own Research !
Congressman Walter Jones has described Washington DC as a "den of prostitution." He said that our government, our officials, our representatives are all up for sale. The driving force for what gets done, which agenda is advanced, and which bills move forward is money.
Does anyone believe that Congress will enable any remedy that cuts its funding (ie, its "power")?
The Pitt County GOP and other GOP groups are supporting the effort to call a Convention of States. Specifically, they are mesmerized by the idea that such a Convention could limit the spending in Washington by proposing and drafting, and then hopefully adding a "Balanced Budget" amendment to the US Constitution.
Unfortunately, they are merely mesmerized by the idea that federal spending can be contained; they are enchanted with the term "Balanced Budget amendment" and they are naive to think that such a plan can ever be as good as it purports to be. The truth is just the opposite.
A potential bill in the NC state legislature, HB 366, will make North Carolina the 5th state to join in the movement to call upon Congress to call a Convention of States for the purpose of drafting a Balanced Budget Amendment. A group called "Compact for America" has provided a template or sample balanced budget amendment. It is a nightmare and full of potential -- no, ACTUAL -- evils.
I therefore advise everyone to BEWARE of efforts to push HB 366 forward. I encourage everyone to do their own research and to keep an eye on which people and which groups will be mobilized into our state to help advance this movement in our state.
On Thursday, October 8, the Eastern NC Tea Party will host Ms. Wynne Coleman, the founder of NO CONVENTION OF STATES NC and an expert on the Article V Convention of States remedy provided in the Constitution. I hope you will join us at 6:00 pm on October 8 at La Ribera Mexican Restaurant and hear what she has to say. And bring your questions and concerns.
Both options for PROPOSING amendments to the Constitution involve the US Congress. To be clear, when 2/3 of the States, through their legislatures, decide that this second option is the avenue they wish to take (which has NEVER been used in our nation's history, by the way), they merely make an application to Congress. And then Congress then takes it from there. Unfortunately, Congress has already taken the position that it has plenary power (all powers "necessary and proper") to organize and define any convention that the State legislatures should "call." It defines the parameters, it defines the delegates, etc etc. [See "The Article V Convention to Propose Constitutional Amendments: Contemporary Issues for Congress," by Thomas H. Neale, Specialist in American National Government, April 11, 2014. http://cdn5.freedomoutpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/crs-report.pdf]
So, as you can see, although it appears that this second option for amending the Constitution is the "State-led" option, the power the states have is critically neutered once Congress gets hold of the application for the Convention. Then, as the federal government does in every other aspect touching on its power, it finds a way to put its own interests and longevity first.
Unfortunately, our country is in such bad shape and the federal government has gotten so completely out of hand that people are desperate for solutions. They are reaching at straws, while at the same time ignoring the rightful remedies already provided. When members of Congress announce things like "The federal government can do most anything it wants in this country," [Rep. Fortney Hillman "Pete" Stark (D-CA), July 24, 2010], we know that something indeed must be done to reign in the power and arrogance centered in DC. But frustration and urgency must not cloud our judgment and our obligation to secure liberty for our children and grandchildren. Activist groups pressuring for an Article V Convention of States must cause us to disregard the remedies that are already available to us (but which we've been too timid to use).
With that short introduction provided, the remainder of this post will be divided into 2 parts:
I. The four reasons why we must OPPOSE all Article V Convention of States applications at this time in our nation's history. (by Diane Rufino and the John Birch Society)
II. Why Compact for America's so-called "Balanced Budged Amendment" (which takes the form of an application to the US Congress, pursuant to Article V, to call a Convention of States)is an insidious PLOT to Impose a National Sales Tax or Value-Added Tax (VAT). (by Publius Huldah)
I. The Four Reasons Why We Must OPPOSE All Article V Convention of States Applications:
by Diane Rufino and the John Birch Society
The four reasons we must oppose all efforts, in any form and for any reason (even if they sound legitimate), to call an Article V Convention of States are:
1. Our Founding Fathers provided this remedy for situations exactly just like this.
The truth is that our Founders did not collectively provide this remedy. It was written into the draft of the Constitution at the last minute by George Mason of Virginia, who, as it turned out, refused to sign the Constitution anyway and who then promised to do all he could to make sure that Virginia and other states did NOT ratify it in their state ratifying conventions. This second option to amend the Constitution, therefore, was not the product of any discussion or debate. James Madison, the man credited with the vision and the drafting of the Constitution, and the man most intimate with the workings, the politics, and the schemes involved with conventions such as the one in Philadelphia (a Constitutional Convention, initiated as a "Convention of States") WARNED in the strongest of terms that a Convention of States MUST BE AVOIDED !!! In fact, it was only when a Convention of States was threatened after the Union was newly formed (1788, when the mandatory 9 states ratified the Constitution) that Madison (who was initially strongly opposed to the addition of a Bill of Rights) acquiesced and promised to write and introduce a series of amendments (Bill of Rights) on behalf of the States to the US Congress (to be approved and then sent to the States for adoption). Madison yielded because he knew that everything that was achieved in Philadelphia and everything good that the Constitution purported to do with respect to a limited common government for the states and for national security would be threatened if state representatives got together in convention. He understood how real the possibility was that their stated mission could easily become a run-away train.
The Constitution is not the problem.
We must correct all those Article V convention proponents who constantly refer to the need to rein in our "out-of-control" government. What we are actually facing is an "out-of-compliance-with-the-Constitution" government. Therefore, the Constitution is not the problem, so changing the Constitution with an Article V convention is not the solution. The only true solution, as daunting as it may appear, is a large-scale, grassroots, constitutional education program that would inform the electorate sufficiently to demand adherence to the Constitution from their representatives. Without such an informed electorate, no form of constitution, whether our current Constitution, a revised Constitution, or a completely rewritten constitution, will work.
3. All Article V conventions would have the inherent power to be runaway conventions.
To their great credit, most state legislators have voted down most Article V convention applications over the past thirty years, based on their belief that such a convention could easily become a "runaway convention" that could make harmful changes to the Constitution. In truth, all Article V conventions would have the inherent power to be "runaway conventions" that could propose harmful revisions to the Constitution as well as provide for new methods for ratification that would increase the likelihood that the harmful revisions would be adopted.
Such conventions would consolidate the inherent powers of a free people, whose right "to alter or abolish" our government is described in the Preamble of 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, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Based on this right as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence coupled with the precedent of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, an Article V constitutional convention would therefore be empowered to rewrite the Constitution without any limit on its action. In this sense such a convention would be superior to Congress, the Executive Branch, and Supreme Court, or any state legislature as well.
4. An Article V convention would enable powerful special interests to revise the Constitution in their favor.
A Rasmussen poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted April 15-16, 2014 found that 67% "view the federal government today as a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests." What this poll result indicates is that about two-thirds of likely voters believe that special interests now control our federal government.
Which is to say that it is a fairly widely shared belief that our government is controlled by powerful special interest groups, such as Big Business, Big Labor, Big News Media, the Education Establishment, Foundations, Internationalist Foreign Policy Organizations, Big Political Donors, etc. It is these special interest groups that over the last century or so have influenced public officials to usurp powers not granted in the Constitution.
Proponents of an Article V convention assure us that delegates appointed by state legislatures can propose amendments, the amendments can be ratified by the states, and the resulting amendments will miraculously rein in our "out-of-control" federal government. This starry-eyed scenario is a major fairy tale. Not only do special interests have working control over the federal government, they also have powerful influence over state legislatures. The power elites mentioned above have learned how to elect and influence large numbers of federal and state legislators a very long time ago. You don't believe it? Just try working with other grassroots activists to stop the special interests' Common Core education standards juggernaut in your state, and see how far you get! For a striking example of the pervasive influence of special interests on state legislatures, read "Not-so-smart ALEC," posted by TheNewAmerican.com, April 21, 2014.
Since powerful special interest groups have such extensive influence over the federal and state levels of government, the most likely result of one or more Article V conventions would be changes in the Constitution that legitimize the myriad usurpations of power that have already taken place in the service of the special interests. This would make it all the harder for We the People to ever regain control of the government from the special interests and secure our God-given rights.
What is absolutely necessary is to energize and inform enough citizens to turn this situation around. In order to secure our freedom, we must create an informed electorate that will roll back the power of the special interests by electing federal and state representatives who will enforce the Constitution as originally intended by the Founding Fathers.
The solution is restoration of the Constitution's limitations on the federal government, not Article V conventions that all too likely would enable special interests to rewrite the Constitution in their favor.
We can't allow an unrealistic fairy tale solution to the very real problem of our out-of-compliance-with-the-Constitution government to lead to the sacrifice of the Constitution on the alter of the special interests that have created the problem in the first place.
II. The Plot to Impose a National Sales Tax or Value Added Tax
by Publius Huldah
A devilish plot is afoot to impose new national taxes on the American People. It is a masterful piece of trickery because the authorization for the new national taxes is buried within Compact for America's version of a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution.
Furthermore, the balanced budget amendment does nothing to control federal spending; and transforms our Constitution from one of limited and defined powers to one of general and unlimited powers. 1
Yet this monstrosity is pending in Michigan as SB 306 2 and in North Carolina as HB 366. 3 Legislators in four States, Alaska, Georgia, Mississippi and North Dakota, have already passed it.
Let's look at Sections 1-6 of Compact for America's balanced budget amendment:
It does Nothing to Control Federal Spending
Section 1 allows Congress to spend as much as they take from us in taxes and add to the national debt. That's a good idea?
Sections 2 and 3 permit Congress to raise the debt whenever 26 States agree. States are addicted to federal funds. Will 25 States agree not to take more federal funds?
Section 4 is a joke: Who believes Congress will impeach a President for refusing to "impound" an appropriation made by Congress? Congress won't even impeach a President for Treason.
How Authorization for the New Taxes is Hidden
Section 5 says:
"No bill that provides for a new or increased general revenue tax shall become law unless approved by a two-thirds roll call vote of the whole number of each House of Congress...." [italics mine]
Go Back
Does anyone believe that Congress will enable any remedy that cuts its funding (ie, its "power")?
The Pitt County GOP and other GOP groups are supporting the effort to call a Convention of States. Specifically, they are mesmerized by the idea that such a Convention could limit the spending in Washington by proposing and drafting, and then hopefully adding a "Balanced Budget" amendment to the US Constitution.
Unfortunately, they are merely mesmerized by the idea that federal spending can be contained; they are enchanted with the term "Balanced Budget amendment" and they are naive to think that such a plan can ever be as good as it purports to be. The truth is just the opposite.
A potential bill in the NC state legislature, HB 366, will make North Carolina the 5th state to join in the movement to call upon Congress to call a Convention of States for the purpose of drafting a Balanced Budget Amendment. A group called "Compact for America" has provided a template or sample balanced budget amendment. It is a nightmare and full of potential -- no, ACTUAL -- evils.
I therefore advise everyone to BEWARE of efforts to push HB 366 forward. I encourage everyone to do their own research and to keep an eye on which people and which groups will be mobilized into our state to help advance this movement in our state.
On Thursday, October 8, the Eastern NC Tea Party will host Ms. Wynne Coleman, the founder of NO CONVENTION OF STATES NC and an expert on the Article V Convention of States remedy provided in the Constitution. I hope you will join us at 6:00 pm on October 8 at La Ribera Mexican Restaurant and hear what she has to say. And bring your questions and concerns.
Both options for PROPOSING amendments to the Constitution involve the US Congress. To be clear, when 2/3 of the States, through their legislatures, decide that this second option is the avenue they wish to take (which has NEVER been used in our nation's history, by the way), they merely make an application to Congress. And then Congress then takes it from there. Unfortunately, Congress has already taken the position that it has plenary power (all powers "necessary and proper") to organize and define any convention that the State legislatures should "call." It defines the parameters, it defines the delegates, etc etc. [See "The Article V Convention to Propose Constitutional Amendments: Contemporary Issues for Congress," by Thomas H. Neale, Specialist in American National Government, April 11, 2014. http://cdn5.freedomoutpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/crs-report.pdf]
So, as you can see, although it appears that this second option for amending the Constitution is the "State-led" option, the power the states have is critically neutered once Congress gets hold of the application for the Convention. Then, as the federal government does in every other aspect touching on its power, it finds a way to put its own interests and longevity first.
Unfortunately, our country is in such bad shape and the federal government has gotten so completely out of hand that people are desperate for solutions. They are reaching at straws, while at the same time ignoring the rightful remedies already provided. When members of Congress announce things like "The federal government can do most anything it wants in this country," [Rep. Fortney Hillman "Pete" Stark (D-CA), July 24, 2010], we know that something indeed must be done to reign in the power and arrogance centered in DC. But frustration and urgency must not cloud our judgment and our obligation to secure liberty for our children and grandchildren. Activist groups pressuring for an Article V Convention of States must cause us to disregard the remedies that are already available to us (but which we've been too timid to use).
With that short introduction provided, the remainder of this post will be divided into 2 parts:
I. The four reasons why we must OPPOSE all Article V Convention of States applications at this time in our nation's history. (by Diane Rufino and the John Birch Society)
II. Why Compact for America's so-called "Balanced Budged Amendment" (which takes the form of an application to the US Congress, pursuant to Article V, to call a Convention of States)is an insidious PLOT to Impose a National Sales Tax or Value-Added Tax (VAT). (by Publius Huldah)
I. The Four Reasons Why We Must OPPOSE All Article V Convention of States Applications:
by Diane Rufino and the John Birch Society
The four reasons we must oppose all efforts, in any form and for any reason (even if they sound legitimate), to call an Article V Convention of States are:
1. Our Founding Fathers provided this remedy for situations exactly just like this.
The truth is that our Founders did not collectively provide this remedy. It was written into the draft of the Constitution at the last minute by George Mason of Virginia, who, as it turned out, refused to sign the Constitution anyway and who then promised to do all he could to make sure that Virginia and other states did NOT ratify it in their state ratifying conventions. This second option to amend the Constitution, therefore, was not the product of any discussion or debate. James Madison, the man credited with the vision and the drafting of the Constitution, and the man most intimate with the workings, the politics, and the schemes involved with conventions such as the one in Philadelphia (a Constitutional Convention, initiated as a "Convention of States") WARNED in the strongest of terms that a Convention of States MUST BE AVOIDED !!! In fact, it was only when a Convention of States was threatened after the Union was newly formed (1788, when the mandatory 9 states ratified the Constitution) that Madison (who was initially strongly opposed to the addition of a Bill of Rights) acquiesced and promised to write and introduce a series of amendments (Bill of Rights) on behalf of the States to the US Congress (to be approved and then sent to the States for adoption). Madison yielded because he knew that everything that was achieved in Philadelphia and everything good that the Constitution purported to do with respect to a limited common government for the states and for national security would be threatened if state representatives got together in convention. He understood how real the possibility was that their stated mission could easily become a run-away train.
The Constitution is not the problem.
We must correct all those Article V convention proponents who constantly refer to the need to rein in our "out-of-control" government. What we are actually facing is an "out-of-compliance-with-the-Constitution" government. Therefore, the Constitution is not the problem, so changing the Constitution with an Article V convention is not the solution. The only true solution, as daunting as it may appear, is a large-scale, grassroots, constitutional education program that would inform the electorate sufficiently to demand adherence to the Constitution from their representatives. Without such an informed electorate, no form of constitution, whether our current Constitution, a revised Constitution, or a completely rewritten constitution, will work.
3. All Article V conventions would have the inherent power to be runaway conventions.
To their great credit, most state legislators have voted down most Article V convention applications over the past thirty years, based on their belief that such a convention could easily become a "runaway convention" that could make harmful changes to the Constitution. In truth, all Article V conventions would have the inherent power to be "runaway conventions" that could propose harmful revisions to the Constitution as well as provide for new methods for ratification that would increase the likelihood that the harmful revisions would be adopted.
Such conventions would consolidate the inherent powers of a free people, whose right "to alter or abolish" our government is described in the Preamble of 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, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Based on this right as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence coupled with the precedent of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, an Article V constitutional convention would therefore be empowered to rewrite the Constitution without any limit on its action. In this sense such a convention would be superior to Congress, the Executive Branch, and Supreme Court, or any state legislature as well.
4. An Article V convention would enable powerful special interests to revise the Constitution in their favor.
A Rasmussen poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted April 15-16, 2014 found that 67% "view the federal government today as a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests." What this poll result indicates is that about two-thirds of likely voters believe that special interests now control our federal government.
Which is to say that it is a fairly widely shared belief that our government is controlled by powerful special interest groups, such as Big Business, Big Labor, Big News Media, the Education Establishment, Foundations, Internationalist Foreign Policy Organizations, Big Political Donors, etc. It is these special interest groups that over the last century or so have influenced public officials to usurp powers not granted in the Constitution.
Proponents of an Article V convention assure us that delegates appointed by state legislatures can propose amendments, the amendments can be ratified by the states, and the resulting amendments will miraculously rein in our "out-of-control" federal government. This starry-eyed scenario is a major fairy tale. Not only do special interests have working control over the federal government, they also have powerful influence over state legislatures. The power elites mentioned above have learned how to elect and influence large numbers of federal and state legislators a very long time ago. You don't believe it? Just try working with other grassroots activists to stop the special interests' Common Core education standards juggernaut in your state, and see how far you get! For a striking example of the pervasive influence of special interests on state legislatures, read "Not-so-smart ALEC," posted by TheNewAmerican.com, April 21, 2014.
Since powerful special interest groups have such extensive influence over the federal and state levels of government, the most likely result of one or more Article V conventions would be changes in the Constitution that legitimize the myriad usurpations of power that have already taken place in the service of the special interests. This would make it all the harder for We the People to ever regain control of the government from the special interests and secure our God-given rights.
What is absolutely necessary is to energize and inform enough citizens to turn this situation around. In order to secure our freedom, we must create an informed electorate that will roll back the power of the special interests by electing federal and state representatives who will enforce the Constitution as originally intended by the Founding Fathers.
The solution is restoration of the Constitution's limitations on the federal government, not Article V conventions that all too likely would enable special interests to rewrite the Constitution in their favor.
We can't allow an unrealistic fairy tale solution to the very real problem of our out-of-compliance-with-the-Constitution government to lead to the sacrifice of the Constitution on the alter of the special interests that have created the problem in the first place.
II. The Plot to Impose a National Sales Tax or Value Added Tax
by Publius Huldah
A devilish plot is afoot to impose new national taxes on the American People. It is a masterful piece of trickery because the authorization for the new national taxes is buried within Compact for America's version of a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution.
Furthermore, the balanced budget amendment does nothing to control federal spending; and transforms our Constitution from one of limited and defined powers to one of general and unlimited powers. 1
Yet this monstrosity is pending in Michigan as SB 306 2 and in North Carolina as HB 366. 3 Legislators in four States, Alaska, Georgia, Mississippi and North Dakota, have already passed it.
Let's look at Sections 1-6 of Compact for America's balanced budget amendment:
It does Nothing to Control Federal Spending
Section 1 allows Congress to spend as much as they take from us in taxes and add to the national debt. That's a good idea?
Sections 2 and 3 permit Congress to raise the debt whenever 26 States agree. States are addicted to federal funds. Will 25 States agree not to take more federal funds?
Section 4 is a joke: Who believes Congress will impeach a President for refusing to "impound" an appropriation made by Congress? Congress won't even impeach a President for Treason.
How Authorization for the New Taxes is Hidden
Section 5 says:
"No bill that provides for a new or increased general revenue tax shall become law unless approved by a two-thirds roll call vote of the whole number of each House of Congress...." [italics mine]
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The main problem is the Costs of War. We cannot be in charge of the world and still maintain our own country and its needs. Here are the financial FACTS:
watson.brown.edu
Cost of Congress is the second issue. We started out with the idea of citizens well thought of locally would go and represent their folks back home as a SERVICE. There was no pay to go. You had 2 ways of affording to go:
*** You had been a good enough business person / farmer to take a few weeks each year to meet in DC and pass laws that helped our society.
*** You had integrity in business and personal life that got you elected.
Now---Congress has become a big game. I had a good friend who pastored a Baptist Church inside the Beltway in DC way back in the 70's. He came for a revival and told me then:
"If the American public had half a clue as to the lack of work and how much partying is going on in DC, we would fire the whole bunch! They stagger in by 10 or so / they run from one meeting to another / they are out starting about 2 p.m. after an long lunch at some fancy eatery / they get into stretch limos to go to the first reception plied with booze / after several of these drunken parties they stagger home about midnight to stat the cycle again!"
It has gotten far worse in recent years. It is now to the point we need a State Convention. The problem is TERM LIMITS needed to be imposed on a party---not a political party, but the non-stop party of lobbyist tit-sucking inside the Beltway of DC.
The same is true for Raleigh. Special Interests have a free hand and that wastes money taxpayers give in good faith by force of IRS Law.
What if we all said, "We have been tricked enough --- NO MORE PAY!"