Month: March 2015

Next year the Amendment Convention will meet and make their proposal.  I believe it should be called the Reagan Amendment, in honor of the greatest President of the 20th century.

It will be more than a balanced budget amendment, although balancing the budget will be its goal.  It will be an economic growth amendment, a regulatory reform amendment, and a federalist amendment. It will be a political realignment amendment.  Though it will contain nothing that is not directly related to balancing the budget, its ancillary effects can be so significant that it could set the course of this country for a generation.

We’ll unveil the Reagan Amendment in June in Denver.  A lot of work needs to be done in preparation, but there’s plenty of time.  It’ll be fun, as long as I don’t have to travel too much.  My current plan is to go to Olympia, Salem and Boise the week of the 23rd.  It’s possible Idaho Senate Majority Leader Davis will like the Reagan Amendment so much that we get our bill this year.  It will depend on how much sense he has.

I’m really looking forward to meeting Washington Senate President Pam Roach.  When I sent the pledge letter to her last summer she gave me a call, and we had a good talk.  She’s kind of a character.  I checked her out on the internet.  A couple years ago she was booted out of the Republican Caucus for obstreperous behavior.  I’m thinking maybe she’s not an ideal sponsor.  Then I find out she gets elected President of the Senate!  This sounds like my kind of gal.

When I was in Juneau I talked to Sam Cotton, the Commissioner of Fish and Game.  He was Speaker when I was House Minority Leader. Sam’s a good guy.  He told me my name came up recently in some budget talks.  With the low price of oil, Alaska will burn through $3 billion in cash reserves this year, and next year they’ll need to access the Constitutional Budget Reserve.  We set that up when I was in the House, and they needed my vote.  I gave it to them on the condition that no withdrawals could be made without a 3/4 vote in House and Senate.  The Republicans had been in the minority since statehood, practically, and I wanted to make sure they couldn’t get the money without our votes.  2/3 wasn’t good enough for me.  I figured they could always buy off a couple Republicans, so let’s make it real hard to do.  Now the Republicans have a 3/4 majority in the Senate, but only 2/3 in the House.  So guess who they have to go to in order to get to the money?  House Democrats.

Those guys owe me a beer.

Without their support, I don’t think this gets done.  They have no idea what we’re doing, no clue that Article V exists, or why.  We’ll probably have 30 states this year, and people still won’t know, or care, what we’re doing.

All the polls show broad disgust with Congress and the whole federal government.  People don’t trust it any more, unlike a generation ago.  They have a lot more faith in their state government.  If this is seen as a fight between the states and the feds, the states win.  We need to control the narrative, tell our story, and bring the people behind us.

There’s a school of thought that we need to operate in the shadows, so as not to arouse our opponents.  I could not disagree more.  To me, politics is done in public.  Opponents are confronted, not hidden from.  I welcome a debate.  I would relish it.  And we would win it.

Do the people of this country want to empower the states, and rein in the federal government?  I say, yes they do.  Let’s show them how it’s done.  But first we need to get their attention.  I have a plan which I’m going to try and sell to legislative leaders around the country.  If they buy in, we’ll debut the first week of June.  Let’s spend the next six months debating the merits of this plan, and go into 2016 with 34 wired.

The Constitution’s an idea on a piece of paper.  It’s central to our identity as Americans because we believe in it, and will fight for it.  A BBA is another piece of paper, another idea.  It will work, if at all, if the American people believe in it, and will insist on it.

I want to engage our enemies, in the open, before the American people.  They’ll decide.

It’s the fight I’ve wanted all my life.

Democrats on the West Virginia Assembly Judiciary Committee successfully stalled our bill today, killing it.  Now, in order to get to 34 this year, we would need special sessions in two states.  That’s possible, but a real stretch.  And that may not be a bad thing.

Everyone involved wants to get this over and done with, for a host of good reasons.  But one reason was dubious: this would allow the vote for delegates to state ratifying conventions take place on Election Day 2016.  This would be a boon to Republicans all across the country, at all levels.  We have thought this would motivate Republican state legislators to push our bill through this year.  It really hasn’t worked.  While this idea appealed to a few legislators it wasn’t enough, in West Virginia, Wyoming and Montana.

A BBA is not a Republican idea.  We’re not out to help Republicans win elections.  We just want a balanced budget.  We don’t want another Great Depression.  We don’t want Greek economic chaos caused by Greek levels of debt.  If Boehner and McConnell want the BBA ratified they’ll have it done at State Conventions.  The best chance of controlling these Conventions is through special elections, with low turnout.  A lot of low information voters show up at the polls every four years, never to be seen again until four years later.  These people are like Catholics who only attend Mass on Easter. The Catholics who go to Mass every Sunday should decide the future of the Church, not the once a year types. The people who care enough to vote in special elections should decide the future of this country, not the gadflies who vote only in Presidential contests.

We might be better off having the Amendment Convention next year.  If it was held this summer people might not be ready for it.  To proceed in an orderly and timely fashion, the Convention should be organized in advance.  State legislative leaders, Speakers and Senate Presidents, need to establish lines of communication with one another, and to agree on an agenda.  Some of the items on this agenda may be unfamiliar to people, and may need a great deal of public discussion before the Convention convenes.  Time is needed to accomplish all of this.  It’s what I’m working on right now, and it’s a daunting task.  The leaders of at least 26 states need to come to an understanding.  That’s a tall order.  I think the extra time will make it a lot easier.

So, sorry, Republicans.  You’re probably going to have to win 2016 without the BBA being on the ballot.  Actually, if the R’s lack the wit to beat Hillary, they deserve to lose.  She’s a mess.  Though I despise him, I admit that Bill Clinton is gifted politically.  Somehow, for some reason, she thinks that because she married him, and put up with his bullshit all these years, she should be gifted too.  But she sucks.  But I’ll give her this  — she’s no quitter.  She’ll scratch and claw and shriek the whole way, to the end.  She will be the culmination of the Obama Era.  A fiasco.

On my dark side I have a vengeful streak.  It’s unattractive and unchristian, but there it is.  Turn the other cheek, my ass. I want the Clintons humiliated.  As Sulla Felix said in his epitaph, “No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full.”

Words to live by.

West Virginia.  Number 27 would be heaven.  We hoped to be in and out of House Judiciary, and on the floor, last night.  Instead we’re in Judiciary at 10:00 a.m.on Saturday, March 14, the last day our bill can be considered.  In committee or on the floor.  This could be the result of the last minute press of business, or stalling by the opposition.  The question now is how much Speaker Armstead wants this bill, how high of a priority is it?  If he runs out of time today he must make choices  — what passes this year, and what must wait until 2016?  How late is he willing to hold the House in session?  Is he willing to “stop the clock” at midnight and continue working into what is, technically, Sunday?

I’m 3,000 miles away, and can’t know any of this.  I feel like I’m in the waiting room at a maternity ward.

I’m always trying to think of one.  You can be creative in politics.  You can also make a fool of yourself.  Figuring out what works, and what doesn’t, is what makes a good politician.

Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis of Idaho will never be convinced, just as Andy Biggs will never be convinced, that there is not a legal possibility of a runaway.  Once it convenes, the Convention is subject to no external control.  No one has any authority over it, except its own members, the states.  I want to try to convince him that if the Convention were held this year, with the current configuration of political power in this country, a runaway is actually, if not legally, impossible.  I believe the best way to demonstrate this to him is to prepare a pamphlet containing the pictures of each of the legislative leaders in the Republican states, along with a brief political biography, including NRA membership or endorsement, conservative legislative accomplishment etc.  In addition to the Republican states I would include pictures and bios from the seven split states*, which, at the Convention, would likely align with the Republicans.  Altogether it’s 38 states, a 3/4 supermajority.

These are people Davis will identify with.  They’re people who are just as patriotic as he is, and have proven it.  These are the people who will control this convention.  They’re his peers.  They’re just like him, except a bit more cosmopolitan, in some cases.

These people are a threat to the Constitution?  My God, these people are more dedicated to the Constitution than any group in this country.  But he doesn’t know that.  He doesn’t know any thing about these people, just as they don’t know anything about him.

These people need to be introduced to each other.  Thus, the pamphlet.

When I was in college we used to call ideas like this “mind attacks.”  I’ve been having a lot of them lately.

Maine, Minnesota, Iowa, Kentucky, Colorado, Washington and New Mexico.