Coburn USA Today OpEd: A Convention Of States Can Restore Our Constitution
Coburn: A convention of states can restore our Constitution
by Tom Coburn
From the very beginning of our country, Americans have wrestled with how best to govern ourselves within the framework of the Constitution. Do we want a strong federal government, or a weaker one? Do we want decisions made closer to home, or in a faraway capital? Does the Constitution itself mean what it says, or have interpretations over time stripped it of its original meaning?
Republicans and Democrats in Congress and in the White House have agreed time and time again to keep spending more money we do not have to pay for things we do not need.
Today our national debt exceeds $18 trillion which equates to more than $220,000 for afamily of four. That’s in excess of $30,000 more than the median home price in this country. In other words, Washington has saddled every family in the country with a debt far exceeding their own home before they’ve even gotten out of bed in the morning, and that’s before we even get to the $127 trillion in unfunded liabilities that faces our children and grandchildren.
At the same time, the federal government is reaching into every area of American life in ways previously unthinkable: federal takeovers of banking and student loans, costlybailouts of the auto industry and burdensome regulation of the internet, reams of new regulation put on the books every single day, not to mention a health care law so onerous and complex that it had to be passed before it was even read.