When traveling through House District 28, a consistent theme I continue to hear from many folks is the need to address the out-of-control spending and power that is concentrated in Washington, D.C.
The mounting $18 trillion of national debt only tells part of the story. That figure does not take into account the ongoing, unfunded liabilities that our federal government has amassed; anywhere from $50 trillion to $95 trillion. Even if you take the lower estimate and the federal government were to confiscate 100 percent of everything privately owned in the United States, it would still fall woefully short of paying off our financial obligations.
Then there is the ominous and complex regulatory burdens that the federal bureaucracy has placed on business and industry with little or no oversight from Congress. States seem powerless to challenge the ever-encroaching grasp of federal bureaus to protect their respective citizens from these innumerable fiat decrees.
As a legislator in state government, I have witnessed firsthand how our federal government uses the power of the purse to manipulate states into passing legislation as a condition to receive “federal money” (that is, the money the federal government collects from individual citizens). With the various strings attached to federal grants, Iowa has essentially become nothing more than one of 50 regional bureaus under a national government, instead of a truly sovereign state operating under a republican form of governance, as was originally intended by our country’s Founders.
This current situation is something our Founders feared and that is why they offered a remedy in Article V of the U.S. Constitution. Article V allows for two methods of proposing amendments to the Constitution:
1. Two-thirds of each congressional chamber proposes a particular amendment
2. Two-thirds of the state legislatures pass a resolution to convene a Convention of States to consider and draft proposed amendments
Given the unwillingness of Washington, D.C. to voluntarily relinquish power and the lack of political willpower our federal elected officials have to broach the subject, perhaps it is time to consider the latter option.
The Iowa House has put forward a joint resolution (HJR 8) making application to the federal government to convene a Convention of States for just such an occasion. This joint resolution places specific boundaries on the substance of the convention by limiting the subject matter of proposed amendments that would “impose fiscal restraints on the federal government and limit the federal government’s power and jurisdiction.”
Contrary to misinformation about this nationwide movement, this is NOT a constitutional convention. It is a Convention of States with a limited agenda. Any motion to repeal or tinker with the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights would quickly be dismissed and ruled out of order.
Even if the fears of a “runaway convention” came true, the fact of the matter is that three-fourths of the states must ratify each and every proposed amendment individually in order for them to become part of the U.S. Constitution. The ratification process serves as the brakes should any “runaway” scenario arise.
Is this movement an uphill battle? You bet it is. But every thousand-mile journey begins with one step. There is a great cost of our liberty if we do nothing to rein in the federal government.
It is imperative that we do the hard work of restoring our government to its proper boundaries and make it subservient to the “consent of the governed” once again.
In the mid-19th Century, Alexis de Tocqueville warned that if we fail to keep the abuses of government in check, then we essentially lose our God-given freedom and become nothing more than “a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.” And we all know how well that turned out in Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”
Rep. Greg Heartsill (R-Columbia) represents Iowa House District 28.