TIME FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

The Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, Andre Bauer, has announced that he is attempting to convene a Constitutional Convention to amend the Constitution to protect Americans from Obamacare's individual mandate. 

This is a very intriguing development.   It takes 34 states to convene a Convention, and whatever comes out of the convention will require 38 states to ratify it.  There has never been an amendment ratified through the states - they have all come from the federal government.  But just because it has never happened before doesn't mean that it never will - although it's almost guaranteed that will be the left's argument against it.  So the big question is, can it be done?  Well, conveniently enough, there are 38 states either preparing or actively pursuing lawsuits against the federal government over Obamacare and the individual mandate.  Interesting, no?

A Constitutional amendment would ensure that never again would our government try to force us to purchase a good or service that they mandate.  The amendment would make Obamacare null and void by making it officially and uncontrovertably unconstitutional.  It could take years for the lawsuits to wend their way through the court systems to the Supreme Court and might not even kill the bill altogether, just pieces of it, so a convention might be a faster solution as well as more comprehensive. 

The problem with the Obamacare individual mandate is that it opens the door to future mandates, so it needs to be blocked, and soon.  If the government is able to tell us not just that we have to buy health insurance, but what level of health insurance we have to buy, where does it end? Let's take, for example, GM.  Even with bailouts and government intervention, GM is still in the red.  Their prospects in the future aren't very rosy, and the odds of more bailouts are pretty good - after all, the unions are running the show now, and no one does unsustainable quite like the unions.  Instead of a bailout next time, what is to stop the government from mandating that all new car purchases must be GM cars?  Perhaps multi-car households might be required to own at least one domestic (read: GM) vehicle.   Sure, it sounds far-fetched, but stranger things have happened.  After all, our government just authorized the IRS to enforce health care.  Who would have thought of that just a few years ago?

Here's hoping this idea of a Constitutional Convention gains momentum.  It is insanely difficult to dislodge an entitlement - usually the best that can be done is 'reform'.  We need more than reform - this legislation is such a mess that there is really no way to fix it - just look at the so-called 'fixes bill' they passed - even at 2,000+ pages, it doesn't seem to really 'fix' anything.  The taxes, fees and penalties are threatening to cause serious damage to our economy and overburdening our health care system with an influx of some 30 million new enrollees will cause long waits and rationing.  We need to rid ourselves of this albatross around our collective necks and a state convened constitutional convention is just the way to do it.  Our federal masters have gone completely mad with their own power - it's time to remind them who really calls the shots.

While they are at it, how about amendments requiring the federal government balance the budget, eliminate the fed, and maybe a national sales tax in lieu of yearly income tax?  If they're going to do it, they may as well go big, right?