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Eye On Boise

Coburn comes to Idaho to press for con-con, amid buzz for, against the idea here…

Former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn speaks at the Idaho Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017 (Betsy Z. Russell)
Former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn speaks at the Idaho Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017 (Betsy Z. Russell)

Former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, a senior adviser to the Convention of the States Project, is speaking in the Lincoln Auditorium this afternoon in favor of states petitioning for an Article V convention to amend the U.S. Constitution for the purpose of “limiting the power and jurisdiction of the federal government.” His talk comes the same day that an Idaho Senate committee agreed to introduce a proposal from Sen. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, to petition for a convention to pass a balanced budget amendment.

Coburn, addressing about 45 people including nearly two dozen lawmakers, said, “A balanced budget amendment is a specific amendment. What we’re calling for is fiscal restraint and responsibility. ... We didn’t want to be prescriptive in limiting. … Let the people who actually represent the people decide.” A doctor, Coburn said there’s a need to treat not just the symptom of the problem, but the disease. “The disease is an overbearing, outsized, very expensive federal government that’s stealing the future of our kids,” Coburn declared. He said, "I want my country back."

Meanwhile, a lecture and Q&A is scheduled next Wednesday in room WW17 of the Capitol, starting at 7:30 a.m., featuring Bill Marshall, a law professor from the University of North Carolina, and McKay  Cunningham, a law professor at Concordia University in Boise, on why they believe the push for a constitutional convention is “a dangerous and misguided effort.”

Plus, a bipartisan duo of Idaho lawmakers, Reps. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, and Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, have penned a guest opinion that’s appeared in several Idaho newspapers strongly opposing the idea.

“The risk is very real,” the two write. “Twenty-eight states have already called for a Con-Con. Once that number hits 34, Congress must convene it. Con-Con lobbyists are working overtime here and elsewhere to tip the scales this year. The public must loudly tell Idaho legislators not to risk a runaway convention that could rip our Constitution to shreds. We agree that the federal debt should be reined in, and that government could be improved. But there are many ways to tackle these issues without taking unconscionable risks with the document that is the foundation of America’s freedom and prosperity.” 



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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