George Will: A Recourse to Budgetary Inaction

Tulsa World ^ | 4/10/14 | George Will

[JeepersFreepers]

From the Goldwater Institute ...comes an innovative idea. It would use the Constitution's Article V to move the nation back toward the limited government the Constitution's framers thought their document guaranteed.

The Compact for America is the innovation of the Goldwater Institute's Nick Dranias, who proposes a constitutional convention carefully called under Article V to enact a balanced-budget amendment written precisely enough to preclude evasion by the political class.

Congress, which relishes deficit spending, would not, unilaterally and unpressured, send this amendment to the states for ratification. Hence the Goldwater Institute's recourse to Article V. It provides, in the same sentence, two amendment procedures, one of which has never been used, the calling of a convention by two-thirds of the state legislatures.

[JeepersFreepers]

It is well worth your time to read the entire column. Also, there is an excellent video outlining the process on the Compact for America Home Page.

[Publius]

Article V ping. George Will has boarded the train.

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[Jane Long]

Thanks. Bookmarking.

[Jacquerie]

Whoa. That is hugh and series.

[Publius]

George Will’s involvement means that the Article V movement has gone mainstream.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[Jacquerie]

Absolutely. Will isn't a constitutionalist. How long has he lived within the media DC bubble? Mainstream indeed.

[A'elian' nation]

You got it. George Will call Mark Levin.

Has Levin commented on this Goldwater initiative?
How does it differ from Mark’s proposal?

[Hostage]

Thank you for the ping.

Someone please tell George Will that it is not a Constitutional Convention, it is a Convention of States (COS) for proposing amendments.

[Political Junkie Too]

It differs in that Will doesn’t have to credit Levin for getting the ball rolling.

-PJ

[PubliusMM]

Thanks for the post. This is a very good summary of the proposal and the process.

[C210N]

Will seems to have left off some research into his article, not the least of which is erroneously calling it a "constitutional convention". Consider:

The compact designates as the sole delegates to the convention the governors of participating states...

This deviates from common practice and then opens up the door to other possibly worse deviances. The Art V COS intention is to utilize state legislatures, and bypass governors. The legislatures typically are closer to the will of the people. Here in MA, both reps and senators (actually, sinators here in MA) are both elected for 2 year terms.

[Baynative]

My first reaction is that this is good, in that GW often surprises me at how moderate (or “Beltway-ish”) he can be.

[SC_Pete]

The risk is that you need 2/3rds of the legislatures to use EXACTLY the same language. Having 4 or 5 Red States going using different language defeats the entire effort. Instead of “balanced budget amendment” they should follow the restricted subject approach of Convention of States. Then you could get a bundle of amendments such as proposed by Levin.

[PapaNew]

Good. Let’s all board the train - at least 34 states of us.

[Jacquerie]

Agree. The language must be identical.

However, the significance of this column is who wrote it.

I might have to watch a yik-yak show this Sunday if Will is a guest. If he goes on at any length about Article V, it might blow our movement wide open.

[SC_Pete]

Yes, I had long ago given up on Will. I am just wary of the “divide and conquer” trap.

[nathanbedford]

As significant as it might be that George Will has boarded the train, it is not insignificant that he fails either to credit or to acknowledge the participation of Mark Levin in the Article V movement. This movement will find itself fighting more than a two front war as it encounters sniping from all sides as the movement proceeds. It is vital that there be coordination early on to avoid offering the Washington establishment any opening to divide and conquer.

As both of you know, Congress will use any discrepancy in the application for convention to discount the applications and refrain from making the "call" for a convention. That is why it is so vital that all applications for a convention be coordinated with identical wording etc.

It appears to me the George Will has gone with the Goldwater Inst.'s version to avoid any apparent connection to Levin who has roughed up George Will considerably of late. Nor is it insignificant that George Will' s approved version appears to be limited to balance budget approach without the structural reforms advanced by Levin and others. To the degree that George Will is a conservative his credentials are largely in the zone of fiscal conservatism.

The Republican as well is the Democrat establishment in Washington would very much like to see these divisions inchoate but embedded in the various state applications to be exploited later.

[hosepipe]

Curly Howard has(had) more wisdom than George Will...

George is always on the verge of going full moonbat but doesn’t..
He is an intestinal parasite.. in the republican colon...
laying eggs... i.e. part of “the problem”...