Arizona State Representative Bob Thorpe called in Friday to the Mark Levin radio show and reported on the progress of the proposal to call a convention of the states to amend the constitution. Plus I amplified his information with some research of my own.

Mark Levin’s new book, The Liberty Amendments, calls upon the state legislatures to bypass Congress and call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution limiting the power of the federal government. This is a report on that effort in Arizona.

Representative Thorpe mentioned that there were two versions of the proposal, and I looked them up to see what the differences were. HCR2027 was proposed by State Representative Kelly Townsend, and it has not been passed by the House. It calls for a broad range of amendments imposing fiscal restraint on the federal government and reining in their power in several ways. Specifically, its preamble states:

“That, pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States, the Legislature of the State of Arizona formally applies to the Congress of the United States to call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States that will impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government and limit the terms of office for officials of the federal government.”

Representative Bob Thorpe’s bill is HCR2017, and it is much more limited, calling only for a single balanced budget amendment. Its preamble states: “That, pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of the United States, the Legislature of the State of Arizona formally applies to the Congress of the United States to call a convention for the purpose of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States requiring that in the absence of a national emergency, the total of all federal appropriations made by the Congress for any fiscal year may not exceed the total of all estimated federal revenue for that fiscal year, together with any related and appropriate fiscal restraints.”

He reported that his version, HCR2017, Made it out of the House on a 33 to 27 vote. So that means that all the Democrats, and seven head-in-the-sand Republicans, voted against it. And then he stated, “I’m going to have trouble getting it through the Senate.” The Arizona Senate has 17 Republicans and 13 Democrats. It takes only three head-in-the-sand Republicans, then, to block it. While my own state senator, Bob Worsley, refuses to respond to my questions about where he stands on this, I believe that is because he opposes it. Or maybe he just doesn’t care much. As time goes on, I’m getting a picture of him as a liberal/moderate Republican who lacks a passion for liberty. So that’s what I’d expect.

We need a good, solid conservative to challenge him for the nomination this next time around.





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