Former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, who departed the Heritage Foundation last month as its President, has now become a senior adviser to a fast-growing conservative movement pushing states to amend the Constitution to rein in federal spending and power.
“I’m gonna work on two fronts. The Founders of the Constitution gave us two ways…to amend the Constitution and one of them is for the states to come together call for an Amendments Convention.
We need amendments to enforce a balanced budget, restrict spending, and restrict the jurisdiction and authority of the federal government. So I have joined the Convention of the States Project.
They are working all over the country,” DeMint explained.
The Convention of the States Project aims to amend the Constitution with an amendment convention, as opposed to re-writing it with a constitutional convention. And now the time is right, says DeMint to install some constitutional guardrails on Congress.
“I’ve had a chance to see Congress at work for many years in the House and Senate and I have come to realize that while we need to continue to support conservatives on the Hill–and I’m certainly gonna do that–That Congress is never gonna stop spending. It’s never gonna restrict its power. They’re gonna continue to run over the powers that were given to the states and the people by the Constitution…. I’m convinced that this is something that can happen in the next two or three years,” says the conservative firebrand.
And while reining in spending and federal power is a big part of what DeMint hopes to achieve, Mark Meckler, who is the President of the Convention of the States Project, says that fundamentally the way to achieve these goals is for laws and regulations to be made locally.
“Part of the reason we have such partisanship–hyper partisan ship here in Washington, DC is because DC is making so many decisions for the people of America. People are different. If you’re from Texas, people are different from Californians or New Yorkers. We’re having this fight because the issues are being decided nationally instead of locally. And most Americans agree outside this city the decision should be made at home by them.”
http://www.oann.com/demint-to-help-spur-effort-to-curb-federal-power-with-amendments-to-constitution/
