Convention of the States: Is a billionaire-funded coup to rewrite the Constitution on the verge of
Last edited Sat Mar 25, 2017, 08:47 PM - Edit history (1)
Happening
JACOB SUGARMAN, ALTERNET at Salon
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/25/convention-of-the-states-is-a-billionaire-funded-coup-to-rewrite-the-constitution-on-the-verge-of-happening_partner/
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All eyes were fixed on Capitol Hill as Republicans attempted to pass an American Health Care Bill that ultimately failed. The recklessness of the party’s leadership can’t be overstated — 14 million Americans’ insurance and countless essential health benefits hung in the balance — and yet a meeting scheduled next week in the Wisconsin legislature may possess even more terrifying ramifications for the future of the country.
According to Wisconsin.gov, Republican lawmakers will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, March 28, to determine whether Wisconsin will call for a constitutional convention. While a subject of legal debate, changes to America’s governing document can be made in one of three ways: Three-quarters of the states can ratify an amendment that Congress has passed with supermajorities in both houses; three-quarters of the states, with majority votes in each, can bypass Congress by invoking Article 5 to approve an amendment; or two thirds of the states can simply use Article 5 to call a “Convention of the States” and rewrite the document as they see fit (three-quarters of the states would then need to approve their changes).
A “Convention of the States” has never been invoked before, but Republicans and Koch-backed organizations like Citizens for Self-Governance have been salivating over the possibility for years, even holding dress rehearsals in Washington, D.C., with representatives from across the country. With the federal deficit presently hovering just below $20 trillion, their ostensible plan is to add a balanced budget amendment. This alone would likely shred the country’s meager social safety net, but as Assembly Minority Leader and Kenosha Democrat Peter Barca warns the Wisconsin State Journal, a constitutional convention could put citizen’s very rights “up for grabs.”
Scot Ross, executive director of liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now, puts it more bluntly: “The balanced budget talk is a fig leaf to let them change America into a right-wing alternative universe.”
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