Before North Carolina can call for limits on the power of the federal government, it has some homework to do.
A group of Republican state legislators in North Carolina on Tuesday introduced a bill that would, if passed, establish a committee to study whether the state should apply to Congress for a “convention of the states” under Article V of the Constitution.
The convention the lawmakers have in mind would propose amendments imposing “fiscal restraints” on the federal government, limiting its “power and jurisdiction” as well as the “terms of office for its officials and members of Congress.”
The bill’s four primary sponsors are state Reps. Bert Jones, Chris Millis, Dennis Riddell, and Jim Fulghum — all Republicans. The bill itself, the text of which is only a page long, argues that the federal government has “created a crushing national debt through improper and imprudent spending,” “invaded the legitimate roles of the states through the manipulative process of federal mandates,” and “ceased to exist under a proper interpretation of the Constitution of the United States.”
North Carolina isn’t the first state to take a step in this direction.
The Convention of States (COS) Project, a Virginia-based group, believes that Washington, D.C. “is broken and will not fix itself.” The group urges state lawmakers to pursue measures like the one now alive in North Carolina.
“The COS Project seeks to urge and empower state legislators to call a convention of states,” the group says on its website. “The delegates at such a convention would have the power to propose amendments to the Constitution that would curb the abuses of the federal government. Article V of the Constitution gives them this power.”
The COS Project was founded by the Austin, Texas-based group Citizens for Self-Governance. Among the COS Project’s leadership are Michael Farris, the chancellor of Patrick Henry College, and Mark Meckler, the co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots.
Alaska, Florida, and Georgia have already passed “convention of the states” legislation, according to the COS Project, while Missouri, New Mexico, and South Carolina have measures pending.
Photo: North Carolina State Rep. Chris Millis, center, stands with wife Tonya Millis, left, while talking with his legislative assistant Vivian Sherrell during the first day of the legislative session at the N.C. State Legislative Building Wednesday Jan. 9, 2013, in Raleigh, N.C.
Would such a convention be allowed to restrict manufacture, sale, and ownership of firearms?
These are the sates that can’t afford fiscal restraint.
Our DEBT/Government Spending Problem is RED STATES! THE TAKERS and the low wages
"Take a look at the difference between federal spending on any given state and the federal taxes received from that state. We measure the difference as a dollar amount: Federal Spending per Dollar of Federal Taxes. A figure of $1.00 means that particular state received as much as it paid in to the federal government. Anything over a dollar means the state received more than it paid; anything less than $1.00 means the state paid more in taxes than it received in services. The higher the figure, the more a given state is a welfare queen.
Of the twenty worst states, 16 are either Republican dominated or conservative states. Let’s go through the top twenty.
New Mexico: $2.03
Mississippi: $2.02
Alaska: $1.84
Louisiana: $1.78
West Virginia: $1.76
North Dakota: $1.68
Alabama: $1.66
South Dakota: $1.53
Kentucky: $1.51
Virginia: $1.51
Montana: $1.47
Hawaii: $1.44
Maine: $1.41
Arkansas: $1.41
Oklahoma: $1.36
South Carolina: $1.35
Missouri: $1.32
Maryland: $1.30
Tennessee: $1.27
Idaho: $1.21
Does anyone else notice the overwhelming presence of northern “rugged individualist” states, like Alaska, the Dakotas and Montana, along with most of the South? Race to the bottom!
Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-08-18/politics/30039546_1_blue-states-federal-taxes-red-states#ixzz2OtabJq7d
What is the “Homework” they need to do? That’s not clear in the article.
REAL MURKINS DONT NEED NO FANCY NUMBRES. WE GOT BIBLES!!!1!!
This could get exciting. The idea of all these wingers in a convention hall with really sweet guns and pharmaceutical-grade enthusiasm and the Fate of America at a stake… and wildly conflicting ideas…I see bodies. Lots and lots of bodies.
I put the corpse count over-and-under at 538, for irony’s sake.