Post by pavel on Jan 13, 2016 15:35:06 GMT -6
To save the Constitution, Gov. Greg Abbott wants to rewrite the Constitution.
That’s the gist of Abbott’s call for a convention of the states to amend the U.S. Constitution. Discussed at length in a 92-page document signed by him and outlined in a speech delivered to the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin last week, Abbott proposes fixing what, by his own admission, isn’t broken. “What is broken,” Abbott writes in “Restoring the Rule of Law With States Leading the Way,” “is our Nation’s willingness to obey the Constitution and to hold our leaders accountable to it.”
So to protect the Constitution from ourselves and our elected representatives, Abbott wants the first constitutional convention since the Constitution was written 229 years ago to be called to consider what he labels “the Texas Plan.” Nine proposed amendments make up the plan; together they would limit the ability of Congress and the president to regulate the states, weaken the Supreme Court and allow the states to nullify federal law.
Abbott also proposes a balanced budget amendment — an idea that’s been hanging around for decades. The pros and cons of a balanced budget amendment have been thoroughly explored over the years and can be found easily online. The American-Statesman’s editorial board has opposed a balanced budget amendment since at least 1992, when Congress rejected the proposal. So far, the proposal’s shortcomings have outweighed its virtues and kept it out of the Constitution. But from time to time, the idea picks up enough traction to be seriously re-examined anew — and should that happen, we’ll revisit it in detail.
Read more: www.mystatesman.com/news/news/opinion/abbott-wants-us-to-respect-the-constitution-by-cha/np4ck/?icmp=statesman_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral
That’s the gist of Abbott’s call for a convention of the states to amend the U.S. Constitution. Discussed at length in a 92-page document signed by him and outlined in a speech delivered to the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin last week, Abbott proposes fixing what, by his own admission, isn’t broken. “What is broken,” Abbott writes in “Restoring the Rule of Law With States Leading the Way,” “is our Nation’s willingness to obey the Constitution and to hold our leaders accountable to it.”
So to protect the Constitution from ourselves and our elected representatives, Abbott wants the first constitutional convention since the Constitution was written 229 years ago to be called to consider what he labels “the Texas Plan.” Nine proposed amendments make up the plan; together they would limit the ability of Congress and the president to regulate the states, weaken the Supreme Court and allow the states to nullify federal law.
Abbott also proposes a balanced budget amendment — an idea that’s been hanging around for decades. The pros and cons of a balanced budget amendment have been thoroughly explored over the years and can be found easily online. The American-Statesman’s editorial board has opposed a balanced budget amendment since at least 1992, when Congress rejected the proposal. So far, the proposal’s shortcomings have outweighed its virtues and kept it out of the Constitution. But from time to time, the idea picks up enough traction to be seriously re-examined anew — and should that happen, we’ll revisit it in detail.
Read more: www.mystatesman.com/news/news/opinion/abbott-wants-us-to-respect-the-constitution-by-cha/np4ck/?icmp=statesman_internallink_referralbox_free-to-premium-referral