I have a post up at Greg Sargent's Plum Line talking about the Balanced Budget Amendment and Speaker Boehner's choices as he navigates around conservative activists. I argue that Constitutional amendments are a logical strategy for him, although it's not clear whether it will work.
Hey -- I haven't run a contest around here for a while, and the last one has so far fizzled (hey, I never expected a serious impeachment effort this soon, but I really did think that some backbencher would go for the big media hit and introduce an impeachment resolution by now).
So: how many, and which, Constitutional amendments will actually reach the House floor this year? None? Just the BBA? More? Which one(s)? Fame and glory to those who nail this one; be sure, by the way, to note any that you think will actually pass in the House.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
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Reaching the House floor is not a hard hurdle to clear. So I'll go with:
ReplyDelete- BBA
- repeal of birth right citizenship
- repeal of income tax (possibly combined with outlawing the Fed and reinstating the gold standard for bonus wingnut points)
- abortion ban
- giving states veto power over Federal law
I'm taking the under and going with ZERO house votes on Constitutional Amendments. I'll take Ron E.'s list one by one:
ReplyDelete- BBA is the likeliest, but I haven't heard House leaders talk much about bringing it up. I think it would pass the House if it gets a vote.
- "Anchor babies" are more likely to be dealt with at first by an unconstitutional statute than a Constitutional Amendment.
- House won't repeal the income tax because the right is still split on flat tax vs. national sales tax.
- No way Boehner gives a Roe repealing amendment a vote.
- No way Boehner gives nullification a vote.
My guess is zero. Why? I think Boehner would like Obama's job at some point in the future. He sat there, through SOTU, and watched as Obama co-opted Republican policy after Republican policy -- ACA (Romney care, and before that, Dole's plan), tax reform, regulation review, agency reform.
ReplyDeleteI suspect he's learning through all this, and what he's learned is to be successful, co-opt the other teams good stuff. I think he also learned that the hot-button social issues are not reliable for good voter control, a political equivalent to lawyerly client control, and the page of Rove's handbook that Rove forgot to write.
- BBA
ReplyDelete- repeal of birth right citizenship
- Madison amendment ( Changing article V so that congress can limit a constitutional convention to one amendment AND Congress can decide whether or not to forward what comes from an article V Convention to the states for ratification )
I think you are much more likely to see a growing demand for an Article V convention.
I'll go with 3:
ReplyDelete-BBA
-birthright citizenship
-flag burning
(come on, that last one is pathological amongst these guys)
I will bet on two: BBA and flag burning. I predict an attempt to limit birthright citizenship by statute (Shocked? then you must still think that legislating is about governing!).
ReplyDelete