As a conservative living in Iowa, I am puzzled why our state legislature refuse to pass a bill calling for an article V convention to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution or even allow it to go to a vote on the floor. The excuse given to me by legislators is “we don’t have the votes.”
To quote President Ronald Reagan, January 20, 1981, “We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around”. “Our government has no power except that granted by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.” “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is our problem.”
Government is our problem, and U.S. Congress (House and Senate) refuse to address the problem. The U.S. national debt has surpassed $38.8 trillion. This represents over $113,000 in debt for every person in the United States. The national debt increases by over $6 billion every day.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the U.S. federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2026 will be approximately $1.9 trillion. Interest on servicing our debt is expected to reach $1.0 trillion in 2026. To quote Bill Murray from the movie “Stripes,” “and then…depression set in…”
Public trust in the U.S. federal government is low, currently only 17% of Americans trust Washington to do what is right. As Reagan said 45 years ago, government is not just “a” problem, it is “the” problem, and the U.S. Congress refuses to take steps to remedy the problem.
As Citizens what can we do about it; Elect better people to the U.S. Congress? Theoretically, sure that might work if we elected 535 people like Mike Lee, Thomas Massie, or Chip Roy. But people like Lee, Massie and Roy are exceedingly rare (notice I do not mention any of our current Iowa delegation), and we are getting to the point where we do not have time to “primary” all the disappointing members of Congress.
Problem one is lack of fiscal responsibility and high taxes; and problem two is, members of Congress represent their own self-interest and the interests of lobbyists and tend to stay in office too long.
Problem one is out of control spending, a deficit that is so large we will never be able to pay it off and too heavy of a tax burden on working citizens of America. Problem two is the people we elect, that are responsible for watching the store are not willing to make the difficult decisions that need to be made, because it is more important that they get re-elected and stay in office (in some cases until death), and in many cases get rich, than it is to do the job we elected them to do.
Solution to Problem one: Balanced Budget and a reasonable Flat Tax. To address the debt and deficit issue, you first must address spending. Here in Iowa, there is a statutory requirement that the governor submit, and the legislature pass, a balanced budget. The Federal government and U.S. Congress do not operate under such a statutory or Constitutional requirement.
To make fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget a reality, and permanent, we will need an “Amendment to Limit Federal Spending” or “Balanced Budget Amendment.” This amendment to the U.S. Constitution would require that every President submit, and every Congress pass, a balanced budget every single year.
To address punitive taxation, we would need an “Amendment to Limit Taxation of Income.” A reasonable flat tax, say no more than 12% or 15% of income from whatever source derived. This would require the 16th Amendment to be repealed and replaced with a new Amendment be added to make the flat tax permanent.
Solution to Problem two: Term Limits. The longer elected officials are in office, the richer they get, the higher the national debt rises and the worse they perform. Even those that are new to Congress are immediately more concerned with holding their seat and getting reelected than doing the right thing, doing the job they were sent to Washington to do, which is represent their constituents.
Our Founders never intended these seats to be permanent. George Washington himself was in favor of term limits. George Washington more than any other individual demonstrated that by stepping down and going home after two terms.
To fix this problem, we need an “Amendment to Establish Term Limits for Congress.” Six terms in the House and two terms in the Senate or any combination of the two that equal twelve years and no more, would be appropriate. Senator Chuck Grassley has served 50 years and counting, this is not about Senator Grassley, he is the exception to the rule, although 50 years is an awful long time. House member John Dingle (D-Michigan) served over 59 years, 1955 to 2015, then he retired, he died four years later. Nancy Pelosi served 40 years, and her net worth is $268.82 million.
How would we go about amending the Constitution? Article V of the U.S. Constitution outlines the procedures for amending the document and set a high bar for proposing amendments. One way to amend the Constitution would requires an application of two-thirds vote by both houses of the U.S. Congress. The Founders also allowed for the Constitution to be amended through an application of two-thirds of the state legislatures (34 states). Once a proposed amendment meets one of those two requirements, ratification requires an affirmative vote by three fourths of state legislatures (38 states).
Will Congress ever propose and pass a Constitutional amendment requiring federal spending not to exceed revenues (only allowing an exception to balanced budget if approved by a supermajority vote)? I do not think we can expect any Congress to vote to limit their own power, it will have to come from the state legislatures.
Will state legislatures ever call for an amendatory convention to propose amendments to address spending, taxation, and term limits? Yes, in fact several have already done so, there are currently twenty state legislatures that have passed a resolution to call for a limited purpose convention. A limited purpose convention restricts proposed amendments to specific topics, not to rewrite the entire Constitution. The specific purposes are: 1) set Congressional term limits; 2) impose fiscal restraints (balanced budget); and 3) limit federal power.
Would thirty-four state legislatures vote in favor of these proposed amendments? Relating to term limits, 87% of all Americans support term limits for Congress (90% Republicans; 86% Democrats). Relating to balanced budget, 80% of all Americans support balanced budget amendment (83% Republicans; 79% Democrats; 76% Independents). Relating to flat tax, it may be little tougher to nail down the consensus on taxes. Many Americans want the “rich” to pay more, and they want to pay less. This is Marxism 101. However, a 2021 CU Denver study found that “eight out of every ten” Americans surveyed believe a “fair share” of federal income taxes is 15% of their incomes to the federal government after the standard deduction allowed by the income tax law.
It would appear term limits, fiscal restraint and lowering taxes are bi-partisan issues that could pass in not only red states, but in swing states and even blue states.
Opponents of the concept of state legislatures using their Constitutionally granted power will say this will result in a “runaway convention” and may result in loss of our individual rights. They use possible loss of our 2nd amendment rights to scare people into joining their opposition. That is a straw man argument. Only 21% of all Americans are in favor of 2nd Amendment repeal (39% Democrats; 8% Republicans). There is no way an Article V convention would ever be able to pass a repeal of the 2nd amendment, and no way thirty-eight states would ever ratify.
As Charlie Kirk, an Article V convention supporter said, “I think the idea of a runaway convention is ridiculous.” In addition to Charlie Kirk, others that support the effort to convene a convention to propose amendments are Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ambassador Mike Huckabee, Governor Ron Desantis, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Representative Chip Roy and many more. I should also mention, President Donald Trump is a supporter who has often spoke of amending the constitution to impose congressional terms limits, a balanced budget and reduce the size and scope of government, which would be the “Amendment to Drain the Swamp.”
What can you do as a citizen to show your support of this movement. Call your representatives in the Iowa legislature, both house and senate, and tell them we want Iowa to be the 21st state to join the movement to hold a convention to amend the Constitution, and restore America as a representative republic, a nation of free independent citizens that has a government, not a government ruling over a nation.
- Scott Bates
