Article V Convention

--By Bill Evelyn on --

The Article V Convention is very much misunderstood and feared, even though it was put into the United States Constitution to reign in an out of control Congress.  It was specifically included to ensure the several states that formed the federal government had the ability to stop abuses by the Congress.  The text reads;

“The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, 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; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.”

The Article V Convention is almost always misunderstood to be a Constitutional Convention or ConCon in colloquial terms. It is impossible to have another ConCon unless we have a Revolution, overthrow the current general government, and ratify a new Constitution. The ConCon that produced our United States Constitution met in Philadelphia in 1787. It was during this ConCon that the Founders put into the United States Constitution the Article V Convention to stop an out of control Congress from injuring the states. Today 34 states need to pass a House Resolution and transmit that to Congress to immediately trigger the Article V Convention. It will take 38 states to ratify any amendments and make them law.

The Constitution has never been amended by an actual Article V Convention, because Congress is scared to take that power from themselves and give it to the states.  While there have been many calls to trigger the Article V Convention, Congress stepped in and proposed amendments to the Constitution.  The first time was in 1789.

The threat of the Article V Convention was used once before in 1789 to define and amend the constitution and create the Bill of Rights. When the states were debating ratification of the Constitution it became apparent that many would refuse to ratify the Constitution without further protections from the new general government. The necessary nine states in 1789 petitioned the Congress to amend the Constitution using an Article V Convention, but James Madison short circuited that effort when he introduced a Joint Resolution in August 1789. Both the Senate and the House passed the original ten amendments in Sept 1789 with the necessary two thirds votes.

In1919 the necessary number of states and Congress amended the Constitution to impose Prohibition on the nation (18thAmendment). It proved to be a disaster and the states ended up paying the tab for the violence and smuggling. There had been opposition to Prohibition and as violence escalated the states threatened an Article V Convention if it was not overturned. By 1933 the 21stAmendment repealing Prohibition was proposed by Congress and received the necessary votes in the states.

The only thing that can be accomplished at an Article V Convention is those states in cooperation submit suggested amendments to the Constitution. The key here is they are not binding until 38 state legislatures vote to ratify those amendments. There is nothing to fear. It is the beauty of the Constitution. It allows the people to change it through the Amendment process. The Founders understood that through experience and time the Constitution might need to be amended. Think about it, the United States Constitution has been amended almost daily without consent of the states. What is there to lose?

The threat of an Article V Convention is enough to force Congress’ hand. The Congress does not want to hand over the power to amend the Constitution to the states. This is why I believe it is necessary to threaten the Article V Convention to force Congress to repeal Obamacare. Obama care will not be repealed whether Republicans take control of all three branches of the government or not. They can’t. No politician wants to be on watch when they tell 78 million baby boomers your Medicare and Social Security is gone. Yet, the truth is the money for those programs is gone. They can’t print enough money, because it is destroying the currency. They can’t sell Treasuries, because no one believes we can pay it back. This is why the FED is forcing member banks to buy Treasuries at artificially low interest rates. Obama care is simply a charade to confiscate billions and billions from the private sector to prop up the welfare state of Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid.

Tom Brokaw wrote a book called the Greatest Generation. I call this generation the Socialist Generation, because it was this generation that marshaled in the welfare/warfare state. Their offspring the Baby Boomer generation embraced government and now 78 million expect their money.  There isn’t any money left.