States Demand IMMEDIATE Call for Article V BBA Convention
The historic milestone of 34 state Article V resolutions for a Balanced Budget Amendment has been achieved, and surprisingly it happened over 40 years ago.
By Thomas Llewellyn – January 17, 2022
All Americans should be shocked at the latest report documenting that Congress has completely ignored their Constitutional duty to count Article V state resolutions. After extensive research of on-line records compiled from the Congressional Record and the Article V Library, irrefutable proof has been uncovered of gross negligence by Congress.
Thanks to a newly released research study, it was discovered that Nevada’s Article V Resolution (Application) for a Balanced Budget Amendment Convention, published in the Congressional Record on February 8, 1979, was the 34th and final Application needed to mandate that Congress “call” an Amendment Convention of States.
Having accomplished this Article V Constitutional threshold requirement of 34 in 1979, the call status has been locked-in waiting for Congress to respond ever since. More importantly, any subsequent actions by states on the subject in those ensuing years, are classified “of no legal import.” This means any subsequent state resolutions attempting to rescind a state’s previous Article V resolution, have no legal standing and are considered “null and void.”
State legislators were shocked and outraged when they were first made aware of this affront to the states due to Congressional gross negligence. Now fully engaged, preparations to end this injustice by Congress, the trampling of state rights and trying to silence the voice of the people on critical issues being ignored by Congress are about to be launched.
Back in 1979 the federal debt was $830 Billion and without the benefit of a fiscal restraining amendment, in the intervening 43 years, Congress has run up an astonishing $29 Trillion dollars of federal debt. And still no call for an amendment convention, as required under Article V of the U.S. Constitution. Their excuse, “an administrative gap” meaning they did not have a process to count hundreds of applications sent to Congress from state legislatures over the last 240 years . . . so it is not their fault.
States are refusing to accept this lame Congressional excuse. The right of states to petition the federal government has been trampled-on for centuries and virtually eliminated because of a clerical error?
Ignoring their responsibility to administer the hundreds of Article V resolutions sent to Congress by the state legislatures must not be tolerated any longer. By deliberately thwarting the legitimate constitutional actions of the states to formally advance resolutions expressing their concerns, Congress has in effect, revoked every state’s constitutional right to petition the federal government on important matters of heightened interest to their citizens. Whatever degree of trust and integrity Congress had remaining with the states is now completely lost.
As a direct result of this Constitutional deception, states are quickly advancing legislation to demand Congress acknowledge the call for an amendment convention. State Attorney Generals are also preparing a mandamus suit designed to have the courts force Congress to IMMEDIATELY move forward and call the amendment convention of state legislatures.
Given the continued fiscal madness in Washington, it is clear that Congress has no intention of curbing their addiction to out-of-control federal spending without being compelled to do so by the states. That is why 90% of voters understand that a state proposed fiscal responsibility amendment is our best solution to gradually moderate the federal budget to a more sustainable level and secure the prosperity of all Americans for generations to come.
The Summer of 2022 should be when the first Article V convention is scheduled and several states are already vying for the honor to host. Selecting the mode of state conventions to ratify would allow statewide voting in November, 2022 allowing the voting public choose “for” or “against” passage of any potential fiscal responsibility amendment into law.
This is good news — I expect that virtually no one in the entire DC establishment will like the idea of an Article V convention, least of all Speaker Pelosi. I expect she and they will do whatever they can to derail the coming lawsuits.
To have an amendments-proposals convention and to ratify amendments, We the People don’t need permission or approval from Congress, the President, SCOTUS, or any of the 500 (or so) federal agencies or departments. So why did the Framers choose to give Congress any responsibility at all?
In the 18th century, there was no internet, no airplane travel, no railroads, no highway system, no telephones or even the telegraph. There was only slow overland mail. Naturally, state reps would have had to meet in person to discuss and debate. So Congress got assigned its mere ministerial role.
Today, practically speaking, Congress isn’t needed at all except to fulfill its vestigial responsibility. But we can be certain the denizens of DC will exploit their mere ministerial duty to make things as difficult as possible for the representatives of We the People — our state legislators.
We’re in for a big fight and a mountain of propaganda and resistance. But we must use Article V, as the Framers intended, to save our republic from the runaway federal leviathan that they presciently foresaw.
Paraphrasing Mahatma Ghandi: First they’ll ignore us, then they’ll mock us, then they’ll attack us — and then we’ll win!
Hope this is real and not fake news.