Part 1 of this blog briefly covered the past 15 years – from the rise of the grassroots through the Tea Party movement, to President Trump’s first administration, to the results of the November 2024 election. Just under half of the votes cast for President in 2024 were not cast for President-Elect Trump. The Convention of States resolution is just as pertinent to these voters, but for different reasons.
Modern-day politics is very contentious – much more so than I remember in my previous five decades of life. There’s no question President Trump is a polarizing figure. And even though he was able to build a wide and diverse coalition of voters, the majority of people opposed to him are vehemently opposed. So if you fit into this category, do you really want to listen to what President Trump wants you to do? Probably not. And those people who voted for Donald Trump? It's not like this other half of the country wanted to listen to Joe Biden, Barack Obama, or Bush 43 either.
And yet, it’s not supposed to be like this. One reason for this electorate angst is that the federal government is way too involved in our daily lives than it ever was intended to be.
The President is a focal point – being the singular person at the head of the federal government. Presidents often get way too much credit for positive results and way too much blame for negative outcomes. This is the result of the federal government taking more and more governing authority from the states and the states allowing it. As Mark Levin points out, “the federal government is the nation’s largest, creditor, debtor, lender, employer, consumer, contractor, grantor, property owner, tenant, insurer, healthcare provider and pension guarantor.” In sum, the federal government doesn’t have constitutional authority in any of these areas.
The result is that way too much emphasis is placed on federal elections. Under our constitutional form of government most decisions are to be made at the state and local levels. On average, 60-65% of a state’s budget is mandated federal spending. This means our elected officials in the Missouri Legislature only have control of roughly one-third of our state budget. The federal government does not specifically control a state’s budget. Yet, it does place conditions on the receipt of federal funds for state-administered healthcare programs and things like infrastructure improvements. Federal matching funds are only sent to a state if the state budgets its resources in ways the federal government desires. So, states have become regional agencies of the federal government.
Speaking of budgets, the federal government has not passed a budget in more than a decade. Rather, DC and its bureaucracies have been funded by a series of continuing resolutions. These are temporary funding instruments generally passed in a comprehensive or omnibus bill. In a proper budgetary process, individual bills are offered and voted upon to fund each agency. This is a much more orderly process where appropriations items are vetted in a committee and then debated on the floor of the chamber. By subjecting each appropriations bill to the light of day, there’s a better opportunity to remove wasteful spending. In the world of the omnibus government funding bill, our elected representatives cast votes without even knowing what they are voting on.
You can track the explosion of the national debt directly to the use of omnibus spending bills. And as a result, this has placed our national debt at nearly $36 trillion dollars ($36,000,000,000,000) and with unfunded mandates anywhere from $150 to $300 trillion dollars ($150,000,000,000,000 to 300,000,000,000,000). Unfunded mandates are promised payments the federal government has made for future benefits – mainly Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veteran’s benefits.
This level of debt and the trajectory it’s on is unsustainable. We can either choose to address this issue now or we will be forced to eventually. Regardless of what you think the proper role of government should be, this has a direct effect on you. When the money runs out or heaven forbid the economy completely crashes, these government programs will end. Would it not be a more prudent course of action to deal with this issue now while we still have options?
If you get tired of listening to the president or whichever party is in Congress every four years, the answer is to make them less influential on your life. Wouldn’t it be great to not have the United States’ policy jerk from one side to the other every four years? No central government has ever voluntarily or peacefully handed governing authority back to the people. The only way for this to happen peacefully and constitutionally is through the Article V convention of states process.
Convention of States Action’s proposed resolution allows the states to propose constitutional amendments in three areas: limiting the size, scope and jurisdiction of the federal government, discussing term limits for federal officials and restoring fiscal restraints. A convention of states meeting is called when the legislatures of at least 34 states pass a resolution agreeing to the purpose of the meeting. Convention of States Action’s resolution has passed in 19 states so far. Any proposed amendments that pass out of a convention of states meeting by a majority vote are then forwarded to all the states. It takes 38 states to ratify a proposed amendment before the Constitution is changed.
If you want to make the federal government less relative in your life, Convention of States Action is the answer. Find out more at COS Take Action.
In liberty,
Brett
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