AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Senate began debate Thursday on an effort to join a national movement pushing for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
A joint resolution presented by Senate President Michael Thibodeau, R-Winterport, would have Maine appeal to Congress for a Constitutional Convention, at which delegates from the participating states would draft an amendment requiring the federal government to live within its means.
Such a convention, called under Article V of the Constitution, would be the first of its kind in more than 200 years.
The debate fell along partisan lines, with Republicans, as they’ve done nationally, supporting the constitutional maneuver as a means to a desired end of cutting federal spending. Congress is unable or unwilling to balance their budgets, they said, so the states must act.
Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, R-Lisbon, said candidates for Congress always pledge they’ll be the ones to fix dysfunction on Capitol Hill, but they never live up to their promise.
“It is unreasonable for us to think that if we continue to send people down to Washington, that someone is going to go down and fix our problems for us,” he said.
Democrats, meanwhile, said it was a “dangerous” idea, given the lack of rules surrounding how such a convention would work. They fear the possibility of a “runaway convention,” with delegates forcing contentious ratification votes on amendments that have little or nothing to do with the stated goals of the convention.
“The last time we had a convention of states was actually quite a long time ago,” said Sen. Nathan Libby, D-Lewiston. “The delegates of that convention were asked to review and modify the Articles of Confederation. Their charge was clear, but they didn’t follow their charge. They threw out the Articles of Confederation altogether and came up with the United States Constitution.”
Thibodeau, who presented the bill on behalf of Gov. Paul LePage, said he wasn’t afraid of a runaway convention because each state could dictate to its delegates which topics to negotiate, and which to avoid.
“I have more fear about the rising debt than I do about the delegates that would appear at a constitutional convention, and what they might do,” he said.
LePage was visited last month.in Augusta by Ohio’s Repubilcan Gov. John Kasich, who was on a national tour urging states to join the movement for a balanced budget amendment.
State legislatures are required to spend no more than they have, but that limitation does not exist in Congress. Republicans nationwide — including U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin from Maine’s 2nd U.S. House District — have pushed for an amendment that would create a balanced-budget requirement for the federal government, but have so far been unsuccessful.
Article V of the U.S. Constitution allows three-quarters of states to call for a convention, circumventing Congress to draft an amendment and send it directly to the states for ratification. Such a convention would require the support of 34 state legislatures. To date, 27 states, including New Hampshire, have already signed on.
The Maine Senate tabled the proposal early Thursday afternoon because of time constraints. The Senate will take it up again on Tuesday, April 28. The joint resolution must be approved by two-thirds of the Senate. The Republican caucus is four votes short of that figure, making the plan’s passage unlikely, given Democrats’ opposition.
Follow Mario Moretto on Twitter at @riocarmine.
