So if land transfers, regulatory reform, and tax reform fit under the umbrella of a BBA, what doesn’t, and why? Where can the Amendment Convention not go? If it were a rogue Convention, there would be no answer to that question. By definition, a rogue Convention would observe no limits. So the question is really where should a BBA Convention not go.
The process of Reconciliation in the United States Senate provides a guideline. Created by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, Reconciliation allows the Senate to pass budgetary items with just 51 votes. So what is a budgetary item? The Bush tax cuts were. The Clinton welfare reform was. Opening ANWR was. But when Clinton tried to pass his health care plan, HillaryCare, using Reconciliation he was blocked by the Byrd Rule (2 U.S.C. Sec. 644). The Byrd Rule says, among other things, that if a provision in the budget has only an extraneous effect on the budget, it should not be allowed. So, who decides if an item is extraneous to the budget? The Senate Parliamentarian, who can only be overturned by a 3/5 vote.
That’s the job I want, at the Amendment Convention: Parliamentarian. I’m a lawyer, and I know the Constitution, and I served eight years in the Alaska Legislature. I’m qualified. When I meet with Senator Faber in Savannah on Friday I’m going to ask him to be Co-Chair of, and to preside at, the Seattle Summit. I’m also going to ask him to appoint me, on an interim basis, as the parliamentarian for the Summit. That way I get to justify my participation in what should otherwise be for legislators only.
Richmond, Virginia should be the site of the Amendment Convention, in honor of George Mason, the Father of the Bill of Rights, and a proud Virginian. Mason also gets a lot of the credit for Article V. In many ways the Constitution was created by Virginians, Washington and Madison most prominent among them. I’ve never been to the Capitol, but I imagine it’s beautiful. So I emailed the Task Force and suggested we contact the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Goodlatte of Virginia (what a coincidence!) and tell him we unanimously urge him to recommend to the House of Representatives that Richmond be chosen as the site.
We may need Virginia next year. Again, what a coincidence! So we’ll make sure we tell all those Virginia legislators that if they pass our bill, and the first Amendment Convention in 229 years is going to be held, it will be in their Chambers. I think they’ll like that.
I’ve been thinking about getting 38 states to ratify, and two of the toughest ones will be Maine and Minnesota. There are a lot of tree huggers in Maine, and it’s barely purple. So what can we give Maine? Lobsters: control of their fisheries, free from the federal government. All small fishermen (which is where the votes are) hate the federal government and its fisheries agents. They’re like revenuers are to moonshiners — the enemy. So we abolish the National Marine Fisheries Service and hand its functions over to the regional fish councils already in existence. The fishermen and lobstermen of Maine would eat that up. When you eliminate a federal agency, you’re cutting the deficit, so it fits. The only people this would piss off would be the environmentalists, and we lost them a while back. So you get Maine.
This is politics. Now, what does Minnesota want? Something that, if they get it, it cuts the deficit. Somewhere in that state there a group of people that are pissed off at the federal government. We need to find out who they are, and what they’re pissed off about, and find a way to eliminate the agency that they’re pissed off at.
Article V, properly applied, can be a lot of fun.
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