Dear
Legislator:
On behalf of the National Taxpayers
Union’s (NTU’s) 362,000 members nationwide and our 1,300 members in the State
of South Dakota, I urge you to support House Joint Resolution 1009. HJR 1009 would
affirm the state’s call for a limited convention under Article V of the U.S.
Constitution to propose a federal Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA).
As you may know, since its founding
in 1969 NTU’s most fundamental and enduring goal has been to establish
constitutional limits on the size and future growth of government. Throughout
the 1970s and 1980s, my organization helped to sustain a movement for a limited
Article V convention among the states to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment
for ratification. During that time we also led the drive for a BBA in Congress,
which passed the House of Representatives in 1995 and came within one vote in
the United States Senate of adoption for subsequent ratification by the state
legislatures. Unfortunately, the scare tactics of extremists thwarted attempts
at enactment through both routes.
More than 15 years after this near-triumph,
the federal government’s borrowing and spending binge has drastically worsened.
Earlier this week, the Congressional Budget Office projected an annual
deficit of $1.1 trillion, nearly equaling the entire accumulated
national debt in 1982.
On a more encouraging note, the
scholarship on behalf of Article V’s relevance and utility has grown
tremendously, especially in recent months. Professor Robert Natelson, for
example, has conducted painstaking research to show that the Founders certainly
did not construct Article V as an afterthought or an accident. From its
conception, the provision was intended to be vigorously applied toward remedies
for federal overreach. Nick Dranias of the Goldwater Institute has, through an
ongoing series of works, cogently demonstrated that Article V is a fundamental
element in our constitutional system of checks and balances, one whose exercise
is both necessary and safe. They join modern-era conservatives in proclaiming
the vital role of Article V such as Justice Antonin Scalia, who in 1979 wrote:
I
have no fear that … extreme proposals would come out of a constitutional
convention. … The founders inserted this alternative method of obtaining
constitutional amendments because they knew the Congress would be unwilling to
give attention to many issues the people are concerned with, particularly those
involving restrictions on the federal government’s own power.”
Those
words echo the opinion of Ronald Reagan, who stated forthrightly:
... [V]oices have been raised warning of danger that a constitutional
convention would open the door to all manner
of proposed amendments. In my view those who warn of this show little faith in
our democratic procedures. The
Constitution provides for both methods and the convention is a safety valve
giving the people a chance to
act if Congress refuses to.
Yet, during this time the naysayers
have failed to muster any credible evidence for their case, preferring instead
to conjure up the “nonexistent constitutional ghosts” that the late Senator Sam
Ervin, an Article V advocate, warned about more than 20 years ago. We were told
that the cure for federal profligacy lies in “electing the right leaders,” all
while Republican and Democratic Presidents and Congresses abused the nation’s
good credit. We were told that statutory measures would bring outlays under
control, even as laws such as the Gramm-Rudman Hollings Act were trampled underfoot.
We were told that elected officials need only “follow the Constitution,” and
there would be no justification to amend the nation’s foundational document.
Today, the entire republic that our Constitution undergirds and guarantees is
threatened with extinction due to reckless federal fiscal policies. We were
told that limits on taxes and spending were too trivial for the Constitution, a
notion that seems quaint today as our national debt tests the ominous level of
100 percent of the nation’s economic output. Unsustainable entitlement
programs, whose dire condition has been known for at least 20 years now,
threaten to heap unfathomable burdens on taxpayers.
In short, it is imperative for state
lawmakers to exercise the power our precious Constitution has given them to
prevent a catastrophe due to federal excesses. As we wrote in “Why You Must
Lead the Congress” over two decades ago:
The Founding Fathers had no way of predicting the
current irresponsible spending policies of the federal government. Yet although
they could not foretell the future, they were men of great wisdom. They did
foresee the possibility that Congress might fail the people. It is for that
reason that Article V of the U.S. Constitution enables the states to amend the
Constitution.
Please review the checks and balances [on an amendment
convention], then ask yourself several questions. Do you think the Founding
Fathers made a mistake in providing the people with a way to reform the
Congress, when Congress was part of the problem? Do you believe that Congress
should be granted monopoly power over the amendment process? … [C]an you name
one country which is not in big trouble because of the money it owes? The real
danger facing America is national bankruptcy brought on by deficit spending by
the United States Congress.
Such words have never been truer
than today. Our members hope you will recognize this fact and pursue the most
rational and safe option now by enacting an Article V resolution for a limited
convention to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment.
Please contact us with any questions
you may have or information you may require in your deliberations. Above all,
however, please do not allow this historic opportunity for reestablishing
fiscal responsibility to slip from your grasp; for the sake of current and
future generations of taxpayers, the time to act is now.
Sincerely,
Brent
Mead
State
Government Affairs Manager 
Letter
