The passage of SR 736 by the Georgia General Assembly is a much bigger event than many people seem to realize.
The Senate resolution calls for an Article V Convention of States for the purpose of proposing amendments to the United States Constitution. Georgia is the first state in the nation to adapt such a resolution.
Given the importance of the issue, the historic nature of being the first state and the local connection, I’m somewhat surprised at the lack of local emphasis.
It seems to have gone overlooked by the state and local media I’ve seen. And, it seems to have been unnoticed by the Republican Party and Tea Party. I have not heard it mentioned at any of the meetings that I’ve attended.
It was an overwhelming vote: 37-17 in the Senate and 107-58 in the House. Those are significant numbers.
For those unfamiliar with the subject, please refer to the Mark Levin book, “The Liberty Amendments.” In his book he describes the process that the Founders gave us to amend the Constitution when the federal government won’t act. Levin proposes 11 amendments.
His suggestions might or might not be those adopted by a convention. You can find them with an Internet search (“google it”) on the Liberty Amendments.
They include term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court, repeal the 17th Amendment, allow overturning a Supreme Court decision with a three-fifths vote of Congress or the states, require a federal budget to be enacted by May (the Democrat Senate has generally ignored passing any budget during the last several years), the budget may not exceed 17.5 percent of GDP nor total tax revenues (ending deficit spending), limit income taxes to 15 percent, require federal agencies to be reauthorized every three years, limit the Commerce Clause to preventing states from impeding commerce and trade between the states and specify that it doesn’t extend to activity within states or compel an individual to participate in commerce (bye-bye, Obamacare), extend the protection against seizure of private property, require a 30-day waiting period between the final version of a bill and the final vote to approve (allows us, and them, to actually read legislation before it’s passed), three-fifths vote of the states can override any federal statue or regulation with a cost exceeding $100 million, and require valid photo ID and proof of citizenship to register and vote in all federal elections, in person or by mail.
To get more information, you might also look at conventionofstates.org, the website of the nationwide organization that is working to achieve a convention.
I find the lack of local response on this important resolution to be peculiar for two reasons.
One is, there are many people in the Republican Party or Tea Party, and outside of them, who are highly involved in one or more specific issues.
Most of those issues would “go away” or would never have been inflicted on us in the first place if some of these amendments were in place.
Second, the resolution was co-sponsored by the state senator who represents most of Fayette County, Senator Ronnie Chance.
I do thank the House and the Senate and Ronnie Chance for trying to provide what may be the only way we’ll ever control the federal Leviathan.
Peter Pfeifer
Peachtree City, Ga.
