Gov. Greg Abbott recently called on his fellow Texans to join the push for a Convention of States. With the rallying of his countrymen, Abbot gave his solution to our nation’s ever-growing federal dilemma.

Abbott is not afraid to push the government back in their place when they overstep the line of power. In the past, Abbott repeatedly demanded accountability and responsibility from our leaders. As attorney general he filed 31 lawsuits against the government. He’s not new to this game.

This time he is calling for something more than accountability. He is demanding the federal government return power to their rightful owners — the citizens of the United States.

In a series reviewing and discussing the plan written by Abbott, the Breitbart News Network lists out the nine proposed amendments.

Abbott correctly charges that the “cure” will obviously not come from Washington, D.C. lawmakers. He said they cannot “be relied upon to do something as mundane as pass an annual budget, much less can they balance one.”

Article V of the U.S. Constitution gives the states the power to amend the Constitution.

The Texas Plan is the roadmap to reining in the federal government and restoring the balance of power between the States and the federal government, Abbott says.  It consists of nine amendments.

Although these amendments will be discussed in more detail in this series of articles, the nine proposed amendments appear below:

  1.  Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one State.

  2. Require Congress to balance its budget.

  3. Prohibit administrative agencies—and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them—from creating federal law.

  4.  Prohibit administrative agencies—and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them—from preempting state law.

  5.  Allow a two-thirds majority of the States to override a U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

  6. Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law.

  7.  Restore the balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution.

  8. Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds.

  9. Allow a two-thirds majority of the States to override a federal law or regulation.

Though the amendments will need to be debated by the states, we love Abbott’s vision for restricting he overreaching politicians in D.C. We will only thrive when our government is managed by the people.

As American citizens, we have the right to govern ourselves. When the government impedes on that right, it is our duty to take action and restore the democracy our Founding Fathers fought and died defending.

Read Part I and Part II of the series here.

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

2 Responses

  1. Harry Stuart

    “I hold that, a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as in the physical”.
    Thomas Jefferson

    Reply
    • Harry Stuart

      I misstated the quote. Pleas do not publish yet. I will correct later.

      Reply

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