Compact for America Catches Fire!
It has been an incredible past few weeks for the Compact for America Initiative! We’ve enjoyed rapidly growing national, regional and local media coverage!
The effort is on the edge of going viral.
In North Carolina, Jones & Bount Published, “A Compact to Save America from Financial Ruin,” in which Compact for America Educational Foundation Scholar Dean Clancy (fmr VP of FreedomWorks) wrote about the crucial importance of North Carolina’s push to pass HB366-the Compact for a Balanced Budget:
“Think of the compact as the launch vehicle, and the BBA as the payload. The vehicle is launched by the states; the payload shifts power to the states. Should the payload reach the target (ratification), a dramatic rebirth of federalism will occur, and a wonderful reflowering of local self-government. For the first time in more than a century, North Carolina will have a real seat at the budget table in Washington.”
This great column followed the first victory for the Compact for a Balanced Budget in North Carolina’s House Judiciary Committee, which was covered by Raleigh’s WRAL here, by the John Locke Foundation here, and by Jones & Blount here.
Just a few days earlier, Washington, DC’s Inside Sources published Economist Dr. Sven Larson (also a CFAEF Council of Scholars member), who underscored the need for bipartisan support of HCR26-the concurrent resolution that wouldd activate the Compact for a Balanced Budget:
“The debt is a formidable challenge and a complex problem. A solution will require thoughtful debate and careful analysis. But most of all, it will require bipartisanship and dedication from our elected officials, current as well as future. If we can summon that bipartisanship, we can be proud of the country that we hand over to coming generations.”
This piece followed a great opinion column by former Michigan State House Representative and Compact for a Balanced Budget Michigan Policy Director Leon Drolet, published by the Grand Rapids Press, in which he warned:
“We owe it to ourselves and our children to ensure America's greatness is passed along and not sapped by reckless behavior. We should support the Compact for a Balanced Budget and demand a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.”
Meanwhile, the same day as Dean Clancy’s North Carolina piece, the Associated Press, Fox News and ABC News, and numerous local and regional outlets from Minnesota to Texas, covered the Compact for America initiative as one of the Big Three efforts advancing constitutional reform from the states! The Drudge Report picked up the AP Story.
The coverage had some faults, but there’s no such thing as bad national publicity for a growing movement!
What was especially important was the unity among the Big Three constitutional reform efforts expressed by former U.S. Senator Tom Coburn:
“Whether it's the Convention of States, or the compact or the balanced budget amendment, when they get close, Congress is going to be looking over its shoulder. They'll say, `We'd better get this done or we're going to lose some of our power.’”
Additionally, the Compact for a Balanced Budget effort enjoyed numerous interviews on various media outlets, including:
Heartland Institute’s interview of Compact for a Balanced Budget Commission Chair and CFA-Action Advisor Rep. Paulette Rakestraw.
An interview of yours truly on North Carolina’s Bill LuMaye show and on Oklahoma’s Liberty Talk Radio.
Finally, if you’re too impatient to wait for the launch of the Institute for Humane Studies’ great new national debt reform page, you can check out a series of podcast interviews of Compact for America’s team of experts and advisors we produced for IHS and C4A Live!—including Chairman Tom Patterson, Professor John Eastman, Professor Kevin Gutzman, Ilya Shapiro, and more!
I hope you can see why the Compact for America initiative, as propelled by its first project—the Compact for a Balanced Budget—is worthy of your continued attention.
And to all of our cherished skeptics, check out the supermajorities of support our polling data evidences both nationally and in 5 key states; and then consider the fact that 38+ state compacts and uniform laws have been passed 30 times in the past, with one effort achieving 38 states in 2 years!
With the lessons of Greece and Puerto Rico so painfully obvious, it is only a question of commitment and resources before the States and the American People Compact for a Balanced Budget!
We will succeed with your continued support!
PS. Please join me and other policy and political leaders in Dallas on August 26th for the Heartland Institute’s Constitutional Reform forum!
PPS. Save the date of December 5th if you want to save the Republic, drive fast cars, smoke a few cigars, admire some vintage jet fighters, and more…
