Speaker Mike Johnson OK on Article V Litigation

Enforcing State Power To Propose a Fiscal Responsibility Amendment

You heard it here first. Speaker Mike Johnson advised FFSF in a recent personal meeting that he would not object to state Attorneys General filing litigation to compel Congress to call an Article V convention for proposing amendments limited to the subject of fiscal responsibility. I share this news because some on-the-fencers have expressed concern about a possible negative reaction from Washington.

Speaker Johnson explained to us why he backs putting a “sue us please” banner on the Capitol Rotunda. His somewhat startling take is perfectly logical. Speaker Johnson agrees that our nation must have a fiscal responsibility amendment if we are to stave off debt crisis … and he can count. Congress simply does not have the votes to pass the needed amendment.

Speaker Johnson’s support for state Article V amending power dates back to his time in the Louisiana House in 2016 when he was persuaded that runaway debt and runaway government were far more serious concerns than the purported “runaway convention.”

Here is a capsule summary of the safeguards against a runaway convention. Foremost among these: an Article V amending convention has NO POWER other than to PROPOSE amendments, and any proposed amendment must be RATIFIED by the very high bar of 38 states.

And, for those asking about where President Trump stands on Article V:

Bottom lines:

• “America is headed toward a debt crisis, and there is zero evidence that Washington has the will to avoid it.” That’s the headline of a new No Labels report, “Nightmare on Main Street,” showing how an increasingly-likely 2028 bond market failure will wreck the lives of American families and give our nation’s enemies the opening they crave to exploit our economic weakness.

• Other than going full Thelma and Louise into the coming fiscal meltdown, the single constitutional and politically-feasible response is for state Attorneys General to file litigation to compel Congress to call a convention so that the states can propose the needed fiscal responsibility amendment.

• For those on the fence, we no longer have years. Listen to Speaker Johnson. Congress will not act. The states must lead.

• Here is the good news. This filing will be the first substantial action in decades, showing markets that our nation is finally ready to tackle the debt crisis. A major media outlet (can’t disclose which) has repeatedly told us that this filing will get feature coverage. This filing alone could boost prosperity by tempering both interest rates and inflation expectations.