DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES, December 13, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ — Recently, the New Jersey Assembly advanced a resolution to kill a 160-year tradition of the garden state’s voice in the constitutional amendment process. If successful, this effort would nullify calls for broadly supported amendment proposals to counter congressional corruption and reckless federal deficit spending.
Among the opposition to New Jersey’s Article V rescission attempt (SCR 161/ACR 222) is an unlikely coalition of advocates fighting for the rights of the states to address national systemic challenges. From progressive Wolf-PAC, addressing campaign finance corruption, to conservative fiscal responsibility amendment proponents, the consensus is that Congress will not constitutionally restrain its own abuse of power. At least, not without intense pressure from the states.
Reflecting on the December 9th Committee Hearing, Wolf-PAC National Council Sam Fieldman remarked, “Today, the people of the state of New Jersey came out in force to make their voices heard. Ariana Tsiattalos, a former Wolf-PAC leader and now an environmental engineer testified, thanking Chairman Mazzeo for the support he gave to the people of New Jersey in their effort 7 years ago, support that seemed absent as the Chairman led the final hearing of his career. Karen Chambers was among the many to explain how money in politics has impacted her and her family personally through the high price of prescriptions that we can't reduce because of the influence of Big Pharma. These were just two of the three dozen New Jerseyans who took time away from their busy schedules in the middle of a workday because the issue of the corrupting influence of money in politics is crucial. They were among the nearly 200 New Jerseyans who signed up to register their opposition.”
“The New Jersey House should not vote to repeal their prior call for a state-led Article V Convention,” advised the Former Comptroller General of the United States (1998-2008), David Walker. “Legislators need to listen to the American people and not to special interest groups. For example, over 70% of Americans support the need for a federal fiscal responsibility constitutional amendment. Failure to address our nation’s growing unfunded obligations and large structural fiscal imbalance will adversely affect our economic security, national security, and domestic tranquility over time. The status quo is irresponsible, unethical, and immoral. It is time to wake-up and start taking needed steps to properly discharge our stewardship responsibilities to our country, children, and grandchildren. The states have a critical role to play in this regard.”
David Biddulph, Co-founder of the Let Us Vote for a Balanced Budget Amendment Citizens’ Campaign, Inc. addressed the New Jersey General Assembly directly: “I implore you to Vote ‘No’ on ACR 222 if you agree with your legislative predecessors that, ‘as a last resort,’ New Jersey should be one of the 34 states to call a convention for proposing an amendment for voter-approval to protect the ‘safety and prosperity’ of the people… including my granddaughters.”
As to why New Jersey state leadership would have reversed themselves on recent Article V support for campaign finance reform, Reagan Project founder Fritz Pettyjohn suggested an answer. “New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney will soon be accepting donations to the think tank he is founding in Trenton. Some of the big money donations he’ll be getting will be from the dark money people who are fighting campaign finance reform in this country, people like George Soros and the Kochs. Their coming donations explain his sponsorship of ACR 222, which repeals a campaign finance law that Sweeney voted for a few short years ago.”
Whether an Article V amendment resolution is geared toward ending the corrupting influence of dark money on American elections or is focused on limiting the out-of-control spending in Congress, the ability of the states to draft and the people to ratify constitutional amendments is, as stated in New Jersey’s 1861 Application, the “last resort” for preserving “peace and prosperity for all Americans.
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Other national leaders commented on the New Jersey Vote as follows:
“Both the Congress and Executive Branch leaders perpetually bemoan the national debt and growing interest on the debt as “unsustainable” – and then do nothing, said AMAC Action President, Bob Carlstrom. We in the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) earnestly hope the New Jersey General Assembly will reject ACR 222 and move forward with a Convention of the States under Article V to save our Nation from financial disaster. We are at that perilous point in which the States are last line of defense against the irresponsible federal spending and taxing sprees.”
“The U.S. Constitution’s Article V exists to enable our States and our people to amend the Constitution to check Congress when it goes off the rails — and it is way off the rails right now,” said John Ramsey, Founder of The Bill of Financial Responsibilities Project.
“The objection to calling an Article V convention of states is very confusing,” said Mike Kapic, author of Conventions That Made America. “Much false rhetoric abounds about a runaway while rejecting over 400 years of using the convention process in America. It’s obvious that most of the objections are based on ignorance of the more than 648 recorded administratively successful historical records located and analyzed by scholars and historians. The Phoenix Planning Convention in 2017 operated almost exactly like the July 1847 Chicago River and Harbor Convention in which Abe Lincoln was one of 2,500 commissioners from nineteen states in attendance for two-day event. Why do New Jersey and other state legislatures turn away from this obvious method for method for solving the big problems?”
“Need convincing that amending the constitution is a good thing?” asked Path to Reform’s Executive Director Neal Schuerer. “The U.S. Constitution has, through Article V, been amended 27 times. The Bill of Rights came through the amendment process. So did every woman’s right to vote.”
Mae James
Let us Vote for a BBA Citizens Campaign, Inc.
info@letusvoteforbba.org
