DearDelegate:
On behalf of the National TaxpayersUnion’s (NTU’s) 362,000 members nationwide and our 9,300 members in the Virginia,I urge you to support House Joint Resolution 100. HJ 100 would affirm thestate’s call for a limited convention under Article V of the U.S. Constitutionto propose a federal Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA). Additionally, HJ 100’ssponsor, Delegate LeMunyon, has introduced House Bill 619 to place reasonablecontrols on delegates to such a convention. Such language would further enhancethe procedural protections that already exist to ensure a limited convention fordrafting a BBA.
As you may know, since its foundingin 1969 NTU’s most fundamental and enduring goal has been to establishconstitutional limits on the size and future growth of government. Throughoutthe 1970s and 1980s, my organization helped to sustain a movement for a limitedArticle V convention among the states to propose a Balanced Budget Amendmentfor ratification. During that time we also led the drive for a BBA in Congress,passing such a measure through the House of Representatives in 1995 which camewithin one vote in the United States Senate of adoption for subsequentratification by the state legislatures. Unfortunately, the scare tactics ofextremists thwarted attempts at enactment through both routes.
More than 15 years after thisnear-triumph, the federal government’s borrowing and spending binge has drasticallyworsened. This month, the Congressional Budget Office projected an annualdeficit of $1.1 trillion, roughly the size of the entire accumulatednational debt in 1982.
On a more encouraging note, thescholarship on behalf of Article V’s relevance and utility has growntremendously, especially in recent months. Professor Robert Natelson, forexample, has conducted painstaking research to show that the Founders certainlydid not construct Article V as an afterthought or an accident. From itsconception, the provision was intended to be vigorously applied toward remediesfor federal overreach. Nick Dranias of the Goldwater Institute has, through anongoing series of works, cogently demonstrated that Article V is a fundamentalelement in our constitutional system of checks and balances, one whose exerciseis both necessary and safe. They join modern-era conservatives in proclaimingthe vital role of Article V such as Justice Antonin Scalia, who in 1979 wrote:
Ihave no fear that … extreme proposals would come out of a constitutionalconvention. … The founders inserted this alternative method of obtainingconstitutional amendments because they knew the Congress would be unwilling togive attention to many issues the people are concerned with, particularly thoseinvolving restrictions on the federal government’s own power.”
Thosewords echo the opinion of Ronald Reagan, who stated forthrightly:
... [V]oices have been raised warning of danger that a constitutionalconvention would open the door to all mannerof proposed amendments. In my view those who warn of this show little faith inour democratic procedures. TheConstitution provides for both methods and the convention is a safety valve givingthe people a chance to act ifCongress refuses to.
Yet, during this time the naysayershave failed to muster any credible evidence for their case, preferring insteadto conjure up the “nonexistent constitutional ghosts” that the late Senator SamErvin, an Article V advocate, warned about more than 20 years ago. We are toldthat the cure for federal profligacy lies in “electing the right leaders,” allwhile Republican and Democratic Presidents and Congresses abused the nation’sgood credit. We were told that statutory measures would bring outlays undercontrol, even as laws such as the Gramm-Rudman Hollings Act were trampled underfoot.We were told that elected officials need only “follow the Constitution,” andthere would be no justification to amend the nation’s foundational document.Today, the entire republic that our Constitution undergirds and guarantees isthreatened with extinction due to reckless federal fiscal policies. We weretold that limits on taxes and spending were too trivial for the Constitution, anotion that seems quaint today as our national debt hovers at the ominous levelof 100 percent of the nation’s economic output. Unsustainable entitlementprograms, 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 statelawmakers to exercise the power our precious Constitution has given them toprevent a catastrophe due to federal excesses. As we wrote in “Why You MustLead the Congress” over two decades ago:
The Founding Fathers had no way of predicting thecurrent irresponsible spending policies of the federal government. Yet althoughthey could not foretell the future, they were men of great wisdom. They didforesee the possibility that Congress might fail the people. It is for thatreason that Article V of the U.S. Constitution enables the states to amend theConstitution.
Please review the checks and balances [on an amendmentconvention], then ask yourself several questions. Do you think the FoundingFathers made a mistake in providing the people with a way to reform theCongress, when Congress was part of the problem? Do you believe that Congressshould be granted monopoly power over the amendment process? … [C]an you nameone country which is not in big trouble because of the money it owes? The realdanger facing America is national bankruptcy brought on by deficit spending bythe United States Congress.
Such words have never been truerthan today. Our members hope you will recognize this fact and pursue the mostrational and safe option now by enacting an Article V resolution for a limitedconvention to propose a Balanced Budget Amendment. This is best achievedthrough enacting HJ 100 and HB 619.
Please contact us with any questionsyou may have or information you may require in your deliberations. Above all,however, please do not allow this historic opportunity for restoring fiscalresponsibility to slip from your grasp because of unfounded fears andungrounded contentions.
Sincerely,
BrentMeadStateGovernment Affairs Manager