The Maine House has rejected two proposals that would call for a constitutional convention to propose changes to the U.S. constitution.
Rep. Danny Martin, a Democrat from Sinclair, argued against a constitutional convention for any purpose.
“Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger said, and I quote, ‘There is no way to effectively limit or muzzle action of a constitutional convention,’” he said.
One resolution before the House was to propose an amendment requiring a balanced federal budget. The other would impose term limits on members of Congress. Both were defeated.
Supporters argued the country will never see a balanced budget without a constitutional change, and that sitting members of Congress will never support limiting how long they can hold office.
“The United States hit $21 trillion in debt last Friday and we currently have over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. If this isn’t scary enough, we have to look at what countries are buying our debt. So we owe over $20 trillion of debt to countries that aren’t our friends,” says Republican state Rep. Nathan Wadsworth of Hiram.
