The Big Political Story Of 2016 Will Not Be About Who Replaces Obama - Amending the Constitution

"Last Saturday, December 7th, nearly 100 state legislators, many distinguished, representing 32 states, assembled at Mount Vernon."

"They gathered at the homestead of George Washington, 15 miles from the capital city named for him. The purpose? To discuss how, safely, to revive an overlooked, but invaluable, provision in the United States Constitution to allow a supermajority of states to rein in a power-drunk federal government."

"According to a press release issued after the Assembly’s adjournment, 'They emphasized the importance of any convention being done in a way that accomplishes the will of the people while protecting the sanctity of the Constitution, as this action could ultimately lead to proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as authorized under Article V. The subject matter of what those amendments would be was not discussed.'"

"In other words, first things first. First priority is to establish how this amendment process safely can be conducted. Only when prudent ground rules are established will it be timely to consider substantive proposals."

"The venue, Mount Vernon, was as apt as iconic. George Washington, the father of our country, of course served as our first president. Of perhaps equal importance Washington also presided over the original Constitutional Convention. Now, lawmakers from a majority of states assembled at his estate to address the issue of how, safely, to bring Washington (DC) back into alignment with, well, the vision of (George) Washington."

The rest of this article in Forbes is here.

Lawmakers on Saturday discussed term limits on federal lawmakers and federal judges and certain limits on federal taxation and spending as possible amendments. State legislators stressed the bipartisan nature of support for the discussed amendments, citing a recent poll that shows 74 percent of Americans support a balanced budget amendment while another 75 percent support congressional term limits.

Some conservatives are nervous about the option of amending the Constitution through the convention process, but the requirement that amendments proposed by such a convention must be ratified by three-fourths of the states is a significant limit on the process and would likely prevent a true "runaway" convention from fundamentally altering the Constitution.

More to come...so pay attention. I have read that the next meeting should be sometime in March or May of 2014.