Yesterday in my PJ Media column, I discussed Mark Levin’s rant opening monologue on Life, Liberty, and Levin over the weekend, which covered the debt ceiling negotiations and his proposal to fix our broken government with an Article V convention. Levin read us some very frightening passages from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) report, The Nation’s Fiscal Health, released in May. He reached the conclusion that our system has become broken and corrupt, and Congress has no will or incentive to fix our deeply rooted problems. That’s why, he posited, the debt ceiling negotiations between Speaker McCarthy and President Biden didn’t matter, despite the breathless media coverage and deep state spin that the end of the world was nigh. Levin correctly pointed out that nobody pays attention to the real problem that has plagued us for a decade and a half, across presidential administrations and speakerships and senate leadership from both parties — the absolutely insane level of peacetime spending that has never before happened in America.
I submitted my article late yesterday afternoon and moved on to family obligations for the evening. When I woke up today, I found a pleasant surprise waiting for me — a very robust conversation in the comments section.
Recently, the powers that be (*cough*Paula*cough*) made the determination that we should limit the comment section exclusively to the VIP subscribers to PJ Media and Townhall. We found that it improved our comment section tremendously, by excluding bots, trolls, and ne’er-do-wells. If you have a little skin in the game, it makes you much more likely to take seriously your responsibility to engage in civil debate. Plus, a VIP membership comes with a tremendous amount of value for a very reasonable price.
And man, did we have a good conversation today about the Debt Ceiling and Article V of the U.S. Constitution. So much so that I wanted to do a quick follow-up column to display some of the good questions posed, the answers I tried to give, and the overall high caliber of the discussion (or disqussion, if you will).
If you have more questions about either of these subjects, critiques of my analysis, or general commentary you’d like to add, I want to strongly encourage you to jump into the comment section. The conversation was so productive, I want to keep it going. So, I will dedicate myself to answering the questions we receive below. Maybe we can make this a regular engagement. So please, lay it on me!
Related: Can Our Culture Even Be Saved at This Point?
Here’s a sample of the interaction we had this morning (unedited):
Jahaziel Maqqebet
Maybe next time don’t elect Democrats. Just saying.
The Common Tater
I want to say that to all the people on linkedin whining about not being able to find a job.
VoteGeneric
Some of the really big spenders have been Republicans. Regan and both Bushes. Clinton was the last one who balanced the budget.
We need a balanced budget amendment.Jeff Reynolds
Correct. It’s not one party or the other. Congress is irrevocably broken, and incapable of fixing itself.
JGO-KY
Clinton “balanced” nothing. The Republican congress starting in 1995 began a semblance of a balanced budget by presenting a balanced budget. Clinton was along for the ride and the credit.
Some excellent points! I really enjoyed the opportunity to respond and add my thoughts, or to answer concerns.
Another enlightening thread:
Skep 41
It’s not that the ruling class, or the general population for that matter, are ignoring what is happening; it’s that the educational system has been so completely misguided and broken for so long that the ignorance of the consequences of current policies is almost universal. Capitalism and the ideology that points out the relationship between freedom and prosperity are forgotten in the New Collective Age.
Two hundred years of history, where society after society has been crushed by debt on behalf of a predatory ruling class while the destructive policies are candy-coated in a veneer of socialist jargon are unknown to the Best And The Brightest who believe themselves incapable of error and who have been miseducated in Progressive madrassas where the ideology of collectivism has ended all debate.
A Constitutional Convention run in a society where any notion of the principals of human freedom, basic economic axioms and fiscal sanity have been completely forgotten is a fast-track to the totalitarian takeover that already looms on the horizon.JerO
Well stated, with the level of corruption we have now, it would like opening a chest for surgery and asking a butcher to finesse a heart surgery, it would destroy America completely !
Jeff Reynolds
I would also point out that this situation could not occur without the destructive force of an all-important and non-independent media. Every aspect of the information we consume is corrupt, because too many of us simply consume instead of demanding better as engaged citizens.
Xanadu
The followers of Karl Marx crept into Academia and government. Hate to say it, but Teddy Roosevelt started the Progressivism movement into government. Wilson turned us into a semi-totalitarian state, FDR further hardened the totalitarian nature of the Presidency. All this while Democrats kept refining their machine, and the Republicans going along for the scraps; and the academics moving down the food chain through the high schools, to the elementary schools, and now even into pre-schools. Add the Main Stream Media being taken over, and all these wonderful products of academia moving up the ladders in corporations, government offices, the military, and it’s just one beautiful sinister meld of evil.
In this thread, I chose not to address Skep’s critique of Article V, as I ended up dealing with the “Constitutional Convention” misnomer in another thread. Similarly, Xanadu’s comment was great, but they made that comment in another thread, and I addressed it there.
Speaking of objections to a Convention of States under Article V of the Constitution:
Wichita4 14 hours ago
Again with the Article V convention, Isn’t that kind of like dems and gun laws.. SO, let’s pass another law that will not be followed or enforced. Stuffing the ballot boxes is illegal, yet it happens at every election and no judge is willing to stop it.
Back before the dems took over education system using the hitler playbook was the time for an article V, IKE was POTUS.Jeff Reynolds
I share your concern that we’re too far down the path of tyranny, and fear nothing may reverse it. However, we have a very powerful tool we’ve yet to employ, and it would peacefully stuff the monster back in its box. We have to try. We owe it to the Founders and to our grandchildren to try every peaceful method to change things.
hiskorr
Sorry, Jeff, but in the current culture an Article V Convention is as apt to propose mandated reparations and compulsory gender-affirming care as any of Levin’s “Liberty Amendments”.
Jeff Reynolds
I certainly share your concern about where our culture is headed. However, any such amendments proposed at convention would quickly get shot down. There are more flyover states than coastal elite states, and each state gets an equal number of votes. Just look at how many states have fought back with new laws denying genital mutilation surgery and chemical castration for children not old enough to give material consent. Meanwhile, reparations have crept back into our national discussion, but I see only one or two states that have made any substantive movement on going forward. The rest of the states see what folly it is. Again, the flyover states would quash that at convention.
Lots of understandable concern about a Convention of States. And this is where you come in. If you have questions of your own, I would LOOOOOVE to address them in the comment section!
I found this next thread a lot of fun.
Xanadu
Except how can we trust those representatives for the Convention? Certainly not the ones from the states that defrauded Trump from the Presidency and put Biden in his place.
Jeff Reynolds
Great question! There are mechanisms in place already that will ensure fealty to the original application for a convention:1. The amendments proposed at convention MUST adhere to the original subject matter of the applications submitted by all 50 states, and all applications must be on the same subject matter for convention to be called;
2. Many states have “faithful delegate” statutes that create criminal penalties for delegates who vote in bad faith at a national convention – either nominating conventions, or conventions among the states;
3. We currently have around 30 states that have Republican majorities in their houses of legislatures, Republican governors, or both – those states are not at all likely to send delegates to a convention who would propose radical curtailments of our natural born rights, and the other delegates at convention would certainly vote down anything radical.The entire point of a Convention of States is that it would completely bypass the broken and corrupt system currently in place, and put constitutional guardrails up that would excise the corruption over time.
Will it work? There’s only one way to find out. Will anything else fix us? Good luck with that.
S’Naut Right
Do you suppose delegates from CA, NY, IL, MA, RI, CT, CO, NM, WA, OR, MD, DE, MI, MN, HI are going to want the same nation we do?Jeff Reynolds
Probably not, although there’s a strong case to be made they will go along with at least some of the proposals when they realize how much power they have over the federal government. You’ve named 15 states. The other 35 will carry a convention and advance amendments that constrain the federal government.
Once the amendments emerge and are up for ratification, 38 states need to approve. The easiest lifts I see are a balanced budget and term limits, both of which enjoy well above 70% approval among the people. After we get those, it will grease the skids for more amendments that constrain federal power.
So if 38 states are required to ratify, we can look at it from the opposite perspective – only 13 states are needed to stop any radically bad amendments that might slip out of the convention.
hiskorr
Get back to me when 38 state Governors can agree on “What’s for dinner?”Jeff Reynolds
Governors are irrelevant. They aren’t required to approve the resolution applying for a convention. All that matters is the houses of legislature, who vote for the resolution and send it directly to Congress to record. Once 38 state legislatures send in an application, the constitution requires a convention to be called. No governors required.
This represents just a sample, and many more comments and questions came in. Check it out over at the original article.
I would love to see more of these kinds of questions in the comment section below!
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