Month: December 2014

Those are the odds Vegas is giving on an R win in’16.  I think it’s 3-2, or 60-40.  If you’re a bettor, act now, because it’ll be 2-1 next year.

Big story in today’s Plain Dealer about Kasich’s plans to run around the country for an Article V BBA.  If I’m in the Paul campaign, I’m thinking, Do we want to let Kasich have this issue all to himself?  They respect Kasich’s smarts.  They know that, in Kasich’s mind, this is something he wants to take the lead on.  They know that Kasich doesn’t see any downside to what he’s doing.

I’m telling you, this is an issue to run for President on.  John Kasich has figured it out.  In my mind, he deserves a lot of credit  — and will get it.  If this thing takes off, and we get to 34 next year, who’s going to get the credit?  John Kasich.

I don’t care about who gets credit.  And I don’t really care who gets the nomination.  I want Rand Paul to jump on this bandwagon, big time.  I want Pence, and Jindal, and Perry, too. Hell, I want ’em all, even Bush and Christie.  The more the merrier.

I’m not predicting this.  Kasich may be an outlier.  But I sense a breeze stirring.

Some are more consequential than others.

1938 was big.  It slammed the brakes on the New Deal.  1946 was bigger.  It actually reversed part of the New Deal, and gave us Taft-Hartley, or right to work.  As a consequence we avoided the fate of the Brits, and union power began to wane  — today we have 6% of the private sector unionized, down from 35%.

2010 and 2014 were big — big enough to allow Article V to succeed, and to put the brakes on Obama.  2016, if it comes, will be bigger.  We will begin to dismantle the federal leviathan.  It will take an entire generation of political leadership, but it’s within our grasp.  It has to be done.  There’s only one way out of mess we’re in, and deal with the huge challenges ahead.  It’s economic growth, a massive expansion of the economy.  To achieve that we’ve got to cut the federal government down to size.  Only then can we fully exploit the amazing opportunities afforded by all the rapidly developing technologies.  Sustained economic expansion will allow us to handle the huge increase in the elderly population, with all of their demands for services.  And we can handle the debt, as well.

Look at fracking.  It’s changed the world.  When George Mitchell finally solved the problem, and made it work, it was because he was able to marry modern computing power to oil drilling.  People have used hydraulic pressure for 60 years to inject various substances into hydrocarbon formations.  Directional drilling has been around for 40.  Mitchell needed high tech to utilize them efficiently enough to make it all work.

Our economy will boom if we get creative destruction on a massive scale, and that will only happen if we cut the federal government out of it.  The federal government is the captive of entrenched economic interests, who will resist any change which reduces their power.

That’s why Article V is so providential, and so necessary.  It’s the only way to cut back the federal government.  The BBA and term limits are just a start.  I’d like to see an Article V Amendment every two years.

They don’t realize it, but the 7,000 odd state legislators are all also members of the Federal Legislature.  This Legislature has unlimited jurisdiction.  The only thing it can’t do is reduce the equal suffrage of the States in the Senate.  It exercises its power through the procedures of Article V.  Once those procedures have been more clearly established, and made routine, and become accepted as an ordinary part of our federal system, the Federal Legislature will be more than a concept.

It will be a reality.