In the past couple of weeks we have seen a lot of drama in Washington DC. Certainly, there will be more to come. The GOP has a very slim majority in the US House, yet the House Speaker seat held by Kevin McCarthy was vacated. We now we have a rudderless ship. We will no doubt be looking at another record Omnibus bill before the end of the year. Is there any hope the US House will get their act together? And is there anything the Iowa House might do to help right the ship?
The drama in Washington made me think back to the speech Republican Presidential candidate Governor Ron DeSantis made at the Lincoln Dinner here in Des Moines this past July 28th:
“We will stop Congress from borrowing and spending this country into oblivion. We need a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution. We need term limits for members of Congress so that we can have a citizen legislature again. We will get the bureaucracy off the back of small businesses in this country, and I am going to issue an order to all agencies in DC to reduce their footprint by at least 50%.”
Let’s take a minute and unpack that sound bite. “Stop Congress from taxing and spending this country into oblivion”, “Terms limits for members of Congress”, “Reduce the footprint of government by 50%”. How can a President do that? Well, he can’t do it alone, but it can happen with the help of the State Legislatures.
Solutions to problems are the name of the game in leadership. We elect our State Legislators to solve problems. Can those same State Legislators do something to curtail Washington’s runaway train of spending? And if so, don’t they have a duty to act? As Governor DeSantis mentioned, amending the Constitution is the solution.
How is that going to work exactly? How do we amend the Constitution? The answer can be found in Article V. The Founders anticipated the possibility that one day Congress would collectively fail to exercise their Constitutional duty, fail to legislate, fail to represent their constituents. Spending and taxing, printing money and digitizing debt, creating out-of-control inflation. I doubt the Founders could ever imagine a day when we would be $34 trillion in debt. If they had anticipated that possibility, a balanced budget amendment would have been included as part of the Bill of Rights. But they did provide a solution for times such as these, amending the constitution as outlined in Article V.
Article V provides for two methods to amend the Constitution. Article V reads “The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution,”
So one way is for Congress to self-correct, is that ever going to happen? Even if the GOP had the White House and supermajorities in both Houses of Congress, does anyone believe they would amend the Constitution to limit their power?
That would require two out of three members of Congress to vote in favor of limiting their power to tax and spend, limit their term in office, limit the gravy train. Require them to make difficult decisions, unpopular decisions, require them to lead. Do not hold your breath for this ship to self-correct.
Good news, there is another way to amend the Constitution. If we read on there is more to that sentence “or, on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress;”
Now that we have established Congress is broken and will never fix itself, the solution lies with our friends in Iowa State Legislature. This will require our state legislators to lead, to decide to wield the power the Constitution has granted them. Congress for too long has been fiscally irresponsible, the size and scope of government is out of control, and the elected officials are in office too long. Time for our State legislature to step up, do what needs to be done and take action to restore the republic.
Contact your legislators in the House and Senate today and ask them to support Iowa joining the fight for an Article V convention to amend the Constitution.
Bravo, Scott. I agree completely!
Scott, Thank you for highlighting a solution that the state and the people have to repair the broken federal system. Hopefully our State Leaders will decide to lead on this.