Dear Representative:
Think back to your first term as a Legislator. This could be many years ago, or it could be that you are in your first term now. What made you originally want to serve? Did you take that first oath of office with the altruistic goal of wanting to represent your constituents, or were you thinking of establishing prominence for yourself on the political scene? Hopefully it was the former.
Our Founding Fathers set up our constitutional republic to have a limited federal government with the power vested primarily in the States. The Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution states that “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The only powers delegated to the federal government are clearly listed in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.
With each passing year, the federal government increasingly encroaches on the rightful powers of the States. An example would be the US Department of Education, created in 1979 under the Carter administration. Can anyone truly say that the American education system benefits under this intrusive bureaucratic agency? Education should be left to the States. It was not intended to be a function of the federal government. When Washington DC balloons out of control, no one is served.
In a 1791 letter to James Sullivan, Thomas Jefferson said “I am firmly persuaded that it is by giving due tone to the particular [State] governments that the general [federal] one will be preserved in vigor also, the Constitution having foreseen its incompetency to all the objects of government and therefore confined it to those specially described.” The federal government has become incompetent in its bloat. Its size and scope need to be reduced.
Slightly more than 47,000 New Jersey citizens have signed the Convention of States petition, a cross-section representing constituents from all walks of life throughout the State.
The Convention of States resolution is non-partisan. A Convention of the States would hold benefits for all Americans by bringing more decisions back to the State level where they belong, giving the people a say in how their lives are led on a daily basis.
The resolution calls for only three things: imposing fiscal restraints on the federal government, limiting its power and jurisdiction and imposing term limits on its officials and members of Congress.
Citizens often complain about unfunded mandates from the federal government placing excess pressure on their State budgets and, consequently, increasing their taxes. Wouldn’t it be rewarding to have the responsibility to make more decisions on the State level representing the feedback and desires of your constituents? Isn’t that after all why you decided to run for office in the first place?
