The Convention of States Project
Let’s just be clear here on what The Convention of States Project is. They identify four “abuses” perpetrated by the Federal government that they feel need to be addressed. From their website:
1. The Spending and Debt Crisis
The $17 trillion national debt is staggering, but it only tells a part of the story. Under standard accounting practices, the federal government owes around $100 trillion more in vested Social Security benefits and other programs. This is why the government cannot tax its way out of debt. Even if it confiscated everything, it would not cover the debt.
2. The Regulatory Crisis
The federal bureaucracy has placed a regulatory burden upon businesses that is complex, conflicted, and crushing. Little accountability exists when agencies—rather than Congress—enact the real substance of the law. Research from the American Enterprise Institute shows that since 1949, federal regulations have lowered the real GDP growth by 2% and made America 72% poorer.
3. Congressional Attacks on State Sovereignty
For years, Congress has been using federal grants to keep the states under its control. Combining these grants with federal mandates (which are rarely fully funded), Congress has turned state legislatures into their regional agencies rather than respecting them as truly independent republican governments.
A radical social agenda and an invasion of the rights of the people accompany all of this. While significant efforts have been made to combat this social erosion, these trends defy some of the most important principles.
4. Federal Takeover of the Decision-Making Process
The Founders believed that the structures of a limited government would provide the greatest protection of liberty. Not only were there to be checks and balances between the branches of the federal government, power was to be shared between the states and federal government, with the latter only exercising those powers specifically granted in the Constitution.
I find this a truly breathtaking collection. They want to do away with lawfully legislated programs like Social Security and business regulations that have successfully cleaned the environment and leveled the economic playing field. They want to re-ignite the debate over States Rights that was settled by the Civil War.
Let’s examine these in order.
Point 1: Scapegoating Social Security is a complete non-starter. The Social Security Trust Fund is projected to last until 2037 without changes. Let’s assume the worst: what happens if a Republican-controlled Congress and White House does nothing to alleviate the problem, and the Trust Fund goes bust in 2037? First, our present tax structure will continue to pay 76% of scheduled benefits. Second, I’m fairly confident Republican Social Security recipients will be just as angry as Democrats, and will vote their interests. There is no $100 trillion “confiscation” doomsday—that’s a ploy to get the less-educated to fear for their futures.
Point 2: The American Enterprise Institute is the wonderful bunch that told us climate concerns were based on “propaganda” and that efforts to reduce emissions are "based on exaggerations and conjecture rather than science.” They are funded by Exxon Mobil, the Koch brothers, and a whole host of investment bankers. As such they have a vested interest in reducing regulation that gets in the way of oil company profits and Wall Street paydays. When I was growing up the Los Angeles basin used to have smog alert days that kept us inside the classroom instead of letting us on the playground. It actually hurt to breathe on those days. What fixed that? Well it wasn’t the free market. Government regulation (specifically the AQMD) of polluters and automobile manufacturers gave us breathable air again.
Point 3: Once and for all the States are not “truly independent republican governments”. Under Article VI, Clause 2 Federal law constitutes the supreme law of the land. (Drops mic.) This is nothing more than a thinly-disguised attempt at overturning Federal abortion law, further restricting voting rights, and eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry on a state-by-state basis.
Point 4: This is actually correct in the sense that checks and balances were written in to the Constitution. As I noted above, however, when Federal law and state law disagree, Federal law prevails. We fought a war about this very subject.
Now let’s take a quick look at the wonderful people behind the Convention of States Project.
Tom Coburn is a fiscal and social conservative, known for his opposition to deficit spending and for his opposition to abortion. Described as "the godfather of the modern conservative, austerity movement", he supports term limits, gun rights, and the death penalty and opposes same-sex marriage and embryonic stem-cell research.
Mark Meckler co-founded and was the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots. He appears regularly on Fox News. He is the co-author of “Tea Party Patriots: The Second American Revolution,” and writes regularly on Breitbart and the American Spectator.
The endorsers of the Convention of States Project include such luminaries as Mike Huckabee, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Bobby Jindal. If that isn’t an indication of the true nature of this organization, I don’t know what is.
1. The Spending and Debt Crisis
The $17 trillion national debt is staggering, but it only tells a part of the story. Under standard accounting practices, the federal government owes around $100 trillion more in vested Social Security benefits and other programs. This is why the government cannot tax its way out of debt. Even if it confiscated everything, it would not cover the debt.
2. The Regulatory Crisis
The federal bureaucracy has placed a regulatory burden upon businesses that is complex, conflicted, and crushing. Little accountability exists when agencies—rather than Congress—enact the real substance of the law. Research from the American Enterprise Institute shows that since 1949, federal regulations have lowered the real GDP growth by 2% and made America 72% poorer.
3. Congressional Attacks on State Sovereignty
For years, Congress has been using federal grants to keep the states under its control. Combining these grants with federal mandates (which are rarely fully funded), Congress has turned state legislatures into their regional agencies rather than respecting them as truly independent republican governments.
A radical social agenda and an invasion of the rights of the people accompany all of this. While significant efforts have been made to combat this social erosion, these trends defy some of the most important principles.
4. Federal Takeover of the Decision-Making Process
The Founders believed that the structures of a limited government would provide the greatest protection of liberty. Not only were there to be checks and balances between the branches of the federal government, power was to be shared between the states and federal government, with the latter only exercising those powers specifically granted in the Constitution.
I find this a truly breathtaking collection. They want to do away with lawfully legislated programs like Social Security and business regulations that have successfully cleaned the environment and leveled the economic playing field. They want to re-ignite the debate over States Rights that was settled by the Civil War.
Let’s examine these in order.
Point 1: Scapegoating Social Security is a complete non-starter. The Social Security Trust Fund is projected to last until 2037 without changes. Let’s assume the worst: what happens if a Republican-controlled Congress and White House does nothing to alleviate the problem, and the Trust Fund goes bust in 2037? First, our present tax structure will continue to pay 76% of scheduled benefits. Second, I’m fairly confident Republican Social Security recipients will be just as angry as Democrats, and will vote their interests. There is no $100 trillion “confiscation” doomsday—that’s a ploy to get the less-educated to fear for their futures.
Point 2: The American Enterprise Institute is the wonderful bunch that told us climate concerns were based on “propaganda” and that efforts to reduce emissions are "based on exaggerations and conjecture rather than science.” They are funded by Exxon Mobil, the Koch brothers, and a whole host of investment bankers. As such they have a vested interest in reducing regulation that gets in the way of oil company profits and Wall Street paydays. When I was growing up the Los Angeles basin used to have smog alert days that kept us inside the classroom instead of letting us on the playground. It actually hurt to breathe on those days. What fixed that? Well it wasn’t the free market. Government regulation (specifically the AQMD) of polluters and automobile manufacturers gave us breathable air again.
Point 3: Once and for all the States are not “truly independent republican governments”. Under Article VI, Clause 2 Federal law constitutes the supreme law of the land. (Drops mic.) This is nothing more than a thinly-disguised attempt at overturning Federal abortion law, further restricting voting rights, and eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry on a state-by-state basis.
Point 4: This is actually correct in the sense that checks and balances were written in to the Constitution. As I noted above, however, when Federal law and state law disagree, Federal law prevails. We fought a war about this very subject.
Now let’s take a quick look at the wonderful people behind the Convention of States Project.
Tom Coburn is a fiscal and social conservative, known for his opposition to deficit spending and for his opposition to abortion. Described as "the godfather of the modern conservative, austerity movement", he supports term limits, gun rights, and the death penalty and opposes same-sex marriage and embryonic stem-cell research.
Mark Meckler co-founded and was the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots. He appears regularly on Fox News. He is the co-author of “Tea Party Patriots: The Second American Revolution,” and writes regularly on Breitbart and the American Spectator.
The endorsers of the Convention of States Project include such luminaries as Mike Huckabee, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Bobby Jindal. If that isn’t an indication of the true nature of this organization, I don’t know what is.
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