To our Delaware Legislators:
Today, America faces many severe challenges. We, the United States of America, are $33 trillion in debt, and the spending by our federal government continues unabated. No one is held accountable. No one feels responsible. Economists agree this level of debt will crash the economy and destroy the dollar.
We have career federal politicians and judges who most Americans believe do not have our individual or nation’s best interests in mind. The longer the political career, the more disconnected many federal legislators become from their constituents back home, and the more they are beholden to the special interests in Washington, DC.
We also face massive federal regulatory overreach into every aspect of our daily lives. In truth, a fourth branch of government has arisen — the bureaucracy, or federal agencies. The U.S. Constitution specifically forbids aristocracies, yet our federal government has effectively created an aristocracy of itself and its many unelected federal bureaucrats. Fortunately, there is a way to fix this, and it’s right in our Constitution.
As a state legislator, you may wonder what this has to do with you. Actually, you have great authority and leverage to impact not only our state, but also our whole country. Our federal government was created by the states — not the other way around. One of the checks and balances provided in the Constitution was given to state legislatures in the form of a convention of states to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution. This mechanism was provided specifically for the situation, which the Founders predicted would arise, when Congress became overbearing. We believe that time is now.
Most Americans feel that their state legislatures do a better job of representing them than the federal government does. With the power granted to each of you by the U.S, Constitution, your efforts can benefit our Delaware communities and keep the federal government in check.
In this era of partisan division, it is hard to find any political movement supported by both sides of the political aisle. Yet surveys show bipartisan support for our Article V application. In fact, about two-thirds of all voters agree with our goals.
We have found that to be true of the 12,000 Delawareans who have thus far signed our petition.
There is nothing to lose and nothing to fear by giving states the opportunity to discuss and debate how to fix the problems in our federal government, using the tools given to us in the Constitution.
First, the content of the meeting is limited by the 34 state applications that trigger the convention. The application we promote in SCR 100 limits amendment proposals to three topics: term limits on federal officials, fiscal restraints, and limitations on federal overreach. As demonstrated in the recent simulation, any other topic would be ruled non-germane.
Second, you, the Delaware legislature, will choose the delegates who represent our state’s interests at this meeting.
Finally, any proposed amendment will require ratification by three-fourths of the states, meaning that no amendment will become a part of our Constitution unless it has the approval of the majority of Americans.
Please exercise this power you hold by voting to pass the Article V Convention of States Resolution, SCR 100. Let’s make history and insist that the powers not given to the federal government in the Constitution be rightfully returned to “We the People” and our states.
If not now, when? If not us, who?
Thank you.
Physicians for COS
The diagnosis is clear.
We have a growing cancer today known as the Obamacare. As a result physicians are no longer free to practice medicine.No profession feels the full force of the federal government more than physicians. The medical profession is the most highly regulated profession in the United States. The practice of medicine is controlled, taxed, and regulated to the point of being destroyed by the heavy hand of the federal government.
Physicians are told how to bill, how much to charge, and how to treat patients. They are mandated to use expensive electronic medical records. The federally enacted HIPPA (Health Information Privacy and Portability Act) makes the communication between physicians and atients burdensome, inefficient,and expensive. Every physician is required by federal mandate to register with the government to obtain an NPI (national provider identifier.) We are required by federal law to obtain and pay for a license to prescribe medication through the DEA, which is separate from our state licensure.
This heavy hand of government not only oversees the largest federal health bureaucracy ever created, but by extension reaches into every state, every city, and every small town to regulate how every licensed physician practices the art of medicine and how citizens obtain care.
The treatment is also clear.
The prescription for a cure was written into our constitution by our founders. Article V of our constitution allows for the states to call for a convention of states to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government through the proposal of constitutional amendments. Physicians should be the strongest supporters of this brilliantly-crafted states’ rights tool placed into our constitution by our founders.
I urge my fellow American physicians to join with me in supporting an Article V Convention of States to take back control of the practice of medicine. It’s the only way that we can return the practice of medicine back to the intimate relationship between a doctor and patient without interference by the heavy hand of a distant, national government.
Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D. Family Physician Newport Beach, CA