There are two Constitutional amendments that would do the country the most good, and there are two ways to make Congress to take them up, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says.
“2 Constitutional amendments that I think would do the most good: A term limits amendment and balanced budget amendment,” Cruz tweeted Saturday, embedding video from a recent episode of his “Verdict with Ted Cruz” podcast, in which he says that two potential amendments are equally crucial.
2 Constitutional amendments that I think would do the most good: A term limits amendment and balanced budget amendment. #Verdicthttps://t.co/MKgWVfEoey pic.twitter.com/8rJGsL8lgM
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 23, 2022
Regarding term limits, Cruz noted that he is the author of an amendment to limit every senator to two terms and every House member to three terms.
Strong majorities of Republicans, Independents – and even Democrats – support term limits, Cruz said.
“The one group that doesn’t support term limits is career politicians in Washington,” Cruz said:
“And, that’s true on both sides. All the Democrats in the Senate – I can’t get a single Democrat in the Senate to support term limits. And, I can’t get any of the Republicans who’ve been there a long time to support it. So, it is a clear divide.”
“The second amendment that I would also put right side-by-side with that is a balanced budget amendment: 48 of the 50 states have a balanced budget amendment,” Cruz said:
“I think those two amendments would be the two most important structural amendments for shrinking the power of the federal government.”
Typically, an amendment is proposed by Congress and then ratified by the states – but, another path is “through amendments that come out of a convention of the states, called for by the states, to propose amendments,” Cruz explains.
“If Congress continues stiff-arming the people on term limits and a balanced budget amendment, I think there is more and more growing momentum for a convention of the states,” Cruz said.
And, the convention does even have to take place, since the mere threat of it is likely to cause Congress to “blink” and take up the two amendments, Cruz said:
“I think that we are likely to either: (a), see a convention of the states, or (b) if it gets very, very close, to finally have Congress blink, because they’re afraid of a convention of the states, and propose those amendments to ratifications.”
“Either of those would be a better outcome than where we are now,” Sen. Cruz concluded.