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Posted by RickBulow1974 9 years, 10 months ago to Politics
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David Barton supports an Article V Convention for proposing Amendments
SOURCE URL: http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBprinterfriendly.asp?id=157444


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  • Posted by mminnick 9 years, 10 months ago
    Mr. Barton writes an excellent article and Mr. Levin's book is great. An Article V convention is needed and needed soon.
    I'm not worried about a runaway convention as some are but rather a stalled convention. One that does nothing thus maintaining the status Quo. All it takes is o17 states to block anything and everything. The inter-state wrangling would be vile and ugly played out on the screens of the nations TVs and computers.
    I'm ready for that spectacle, but is the nation? It has grown intellectually soft and doesn't really understand what it takes to be a real honest to G-d functioning republic/.
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    • Posted by $ CBJ 9 years, 10 months ago
      I agree, and it would only take 13 states to block actual ratification of any amendment dreamed up by the convention. I can't imagine any substantive positive change to the Constitution gaining ratification by a sufficient number of red states and blue states.
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  • Posted by DanShu 9 years, 10 months ago
    Mark Levin wrote a great book(The Liberty Amendments) All who have not read it should. Levin is for a Convention of States. He believes it may be the only way to save our Republic. It would take the ball out of DC that is totally corrupt and give it back to We the People
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    • Posted by sumitch 9 years, 10 months ago
      I'd like to be able to read the small print and have ever word defined, including is, before it happens. It could be a good idea but we'd need to somehow keep the politician's claws out of it before, during and after.
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    • Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 10 months ago
      Assuming that the state level pols don't have ambition to be national pols and are bribed by the 'party." R+D Party machinery can corrupt this, too, unless grass roots independents take control - 0.00001% chance. Better than nothing though. (My guess is that one state level amendment will be to eliminate state level amendments.)
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  • Posted by Ben_C 9 years, 10 months ago
    Something about the 18th amendment comes to mind. Seems to me we have mulitple constitutional amendments without rewriting the consitution. I am totally for a balanced budget. The sooner the better otherwise we will collapse under the weight of the federal debt.
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  • Posted by Zero 9 years, 10 months ago
    Only a balanced budget amendment will save us. Nothing less will prevent economic collapse.

    There is no other way to accomplish this.

    There's nothing they could do that could pose a greater risk to our nation than to continue to do NOTHING about our debt.

    We have to try.

    http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/84...

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    • Posted by plusaf 9 years, 10 months ago
      Zero, I disagree on the 'need' for a Balanced Budget Amendment based on the Law of Unintended Consequences...

      Mandating a "Balanced Budget" implies to ME that 'all the government then needs to do is raise any and all taxes high enough to FUND WHATEVER they'd like to spend the money on."

      If you think there's a potential danger of falling down THAT rat-hole, as I think there is, please reconsider and look for an alternative 'solution' to that 'problem.'

      Thanks!
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      • Posted by Zero 9 years, 10 months ago
        The public pushes back on taxes. That's why they have to hide the majority of them.
        They could not actually fund what they currently spend.

        As for it being sooo much money - well, at least we'll keep the pain on our generation where it belongs.

        What other solution do you see? A great deal of back and forth went on in my previous post. And I try to keep an open mind. But I saw no other answer presented that convinced me.

        "Grow out of it" still requires balancing the budget - it just makes it easier to do.

        "Monetize" the debt just means adding 18T dollars to a $3T money supply - what could go wrong with that? (Not that it hasn't already been tried by practically every failing government just before their precipitous fall.)

        What solution do you propose PL?
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        • Posted by plusaf 9 years, 10 months ago
          Z, I can and have thought of alternative suggestions, but all of them have some 'initial conditions' that can never be met...

          Close all the loopholes and simplify the tax code... Never happen, because getting rid of them would require action from the same folks that put them in in the first place!

          Flat/Fair/Whatever tax rates? .... never happen. Too many people in the US (and elsewhere in the world) think that what they're getting for "free" has no cost to anyone else, even themselves! Puppies never vote to be pulled away from their mom's teats.

          And basically, when 95+% of people polled say they hate Congress, but 90+% of Congress keeps getting re-elected, there's a fundamental flaw there, and it's not with Congress, politics or any other group BUT THE VOTERS. Which circles back to... the voters keep re-electing representatives in Congress who do things the voters don't approve of, and the voters are too absolutely stupid to see the connection.

          If I knew of any FEASIBLE, WORKABLE solutions, I'd have written that book long ago.
          I wish I knew how to break that do-loop. I think it may need to start with how kids are educated about economics and such, but then again, most of them get 'educated' by liberal teachers in grade schools and ultra-liberal professors at 'the best colleges.'

          Too many loops to break, and the machinery has been in operation long enough to brainwash multiple generations. Fuck FDR!
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  • Posted by Flootus5 9 years, 10 months ago
    The topic of an Article V Convention can be as complex as you want and one can spend a ton of time looking into. I have done this and would offer some simple observations:

    The proponents of such a Convention have researched at great length the history of attempts at convening a convention as well the history of amendments that have been added. They make many great and valid points but are guilty of at least one misleading assertion. They have tried to maintain the position that a Convention of States is different than a Constitutional Convention. Tortured rational ignores the very fact that they are the same thing once convened under Article V. That the Convention of States is an Article V Convention to amend the Constitution is evidenced by the very fact that the COS people are seeking the necessary applications from 34 states as called for by Article V. There is no difference.

    A simple reading of Article V reveals the fact that there is no provision for either Congress or the State Legislatures to exert influence over the Convention once convened. An absolutely valid point made by the proponents is that the subsequent ratification process has a formidably high threshold. However, note this same threshold gave us the 16th and 17th amendments.

    The dithering over whether the original Convention of 1787 is an example of what could happen to an Article V Convention is irrelevant as the current Article V provisions did not exist yet in 1787. Whether or not a modern Convention called for the first time by the second provision - that of petition from at least 34 States to Congress - could turn into a runaway convention - has not been tested, ever. But referring back to the point that Article V provides for no oversight by either Congress or the State Legislatures should give one pause.

    Mark Levin likes to assert that such a Convention would be driven by conservatives and constitutionalists. Oh? Take a look at why the likes of George Soros and his well funded gang of Wolf Pacs and Young Turks are also pressing for such a Convention.

    Opponents of an Article V Convention make a good point in that the level of political awareness and education was substantially different in the Founding Era than todays Age of Cognitive Dissonance. Along these lines they prefer the process of Nullification - another Constitutional Doctrine from the Founding Era - as the effective means of reining in the federal government. A mode that has been successful both in past and recent history - without the potential tampering with the Constitution.

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  • Posted by barwick11 9 years, 10 months ago
    They don't obey the Constitution that we have already, why would they obey amendments?

    Unless there's a new amendment that says something like "any member of Congress who directly violates __________ shall be tried for treason and put in prison for no less than 15 years"... that might make them listen
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    • Posted by $ allosaur 9 years, 10 months ago
      "A cold day in hell" instantly popped into my mind.
      Those parasite professional politicians are far more likely to vote themselves another raise despite the nation being beaucoup trillions in debt (treason) than ever passing an amendment like that.
      Self-restraint is for the little people AKA "We The People."
      I wish I knew how to get professional removed from the forefont of the word "politician."
      Asking them to pass a term limit law is the same as that violation of the Constitution suggestion.
      It would not be viewed as self-serving.
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      • Posted by sumitch 9 years, 10 months ago
        There was one politician recently that said they had to have a raise because it was impossible to live in D C with what they make now. He wouldn't last a week on my income.

        The best from them lately in my mind is some doofus from Georgia that said that if they don't quit putting the people on one side of the island (I forget which one) , pretty soon it will tip over.
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        • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 10 months ago
          I'm retired. Did you see the deal congressmen get upon retiring? Poor baby, he might have to live in a one bedroom apartment.
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          • Posted by sumitch 9 years, 10 months ago
            Yeah, seve one time and get a lifetime retirement equal to their pay while they were on the job (note I did not say doing their job). If they die while their spouse is still alive, she/he gets the retirement for the rest of her/his life. These self centered bureaucrats have even given themselves free haircuts and who knows what else? They work no more than the average part time worker and have staffs, I've heard of as many as twenty, to do the real tasks. They have managed in a smoke filled back room years ago to make their annual raises automatic so the stupid serfs they supposedly represent won't know they are getting raises while the serf's pay is being cut if by nothing else, inflation. Sounds a lot like Madamn Pelosi who has recently said that now that oil is so cheap, the government needs to raise gasoline taxes. She didn't say it but what she means is lets do it now so the aforementioned serfs won't notice it. I wonder if when oil prices go down if we'll get a cut in gas taxes. I've stated before that giving these criminals a constitutional convention would be suicide. How can anyone think otherwise? To say that the states have to approve their tricks is to not be aware of how they really work.
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        • Posted by $ allosaur 9 years, 10 months ago
          It's a very short commute from D.C. to a neighboring state. If I represented Hawaii I'd rent an apartment in, say, Virginia.
          I remember that tipsy doofus too. It says a lot about his enabling voters.
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    • Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 10 months ago
      Make them share cells with other terrorists in Guantanamo. After that they can never hold any government job, never be employed as a political consultant or lobbyist, and must pay 50% of any income regardless of source for life as restitution to their constitutents. I'm still thinking impalement would be a better deterrent though.
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