{"id":115030,"date":"2016-01-08T15:02:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T22:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=115030"},"modified":"2016-01-08T15:02:56","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T22:02:56","slug":"texas-governor-tries-to-punch-his-way-into-national-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/01\/texas-governor-tries-to-punch-his-way-into-national-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas governor tries to punch his way into national politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_115032\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-115032\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Abbott-Greg-771x515.jpg\" alt=\"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott\" width=\"771\" height=\"515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Abbott-Greg-771x515.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Abbott-Greg-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Abbott-Greg-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Abbott-Greg.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Shelby Knowles \/ The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Greg Abbott gives the closing keynote at the 2016 Texas Public Policy Foundation Policy Orientation on Jan. 8, 2016.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/greg-abbott\/\" target=\"_blank\">Greg Abbott<\/a> could\u2019ve called it I\u2019m Fed Up, Too!<\/p>\n<p>The Texas governor unveiled Fed Up! 2.0 on Friday at the Texas Public Policy Foundation\u2019s conference in Austin \u2014 calling on his fellow provincial leaders to assemble for a constitutional convention that would, as he sees it, empower the state governments and constrain the federal government.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/01\/08\/analysis-greg-abbott-punches-way-national-politics\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans \u2014 and engages with them \u2013 about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Texans have been mad at the feds for a long, long time. Abbott\u2019s sally is a sequel to then-Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/rick-perry\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rick Perry<\/a>\u2019s federalist polemic in Fed Up! It fits into a continuum that traces back to the Tea Party and to the crowds of former Ross Perot Sr. supporters wearing \u201cUnited We Stand\u201d T-shirts at those early Tea Party rallies. It harkens back to <a href=\"http:\/\/spectator.org\/articles\/38813\/it-time-convention\" target=\"_blank\">efforts in the 1960s<\/a> to amend the U.S. Constitution to thwart socially liberal decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s another kind of sequel, too, setting Abbott in a line of Texas governors who became national political figures in one fashion or another. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/ann-w-richards\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ann Richards<\/a> was a bona fide political celebrity, a leading liberal voice even though she never held national office. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/george-w-bush\/\" target=\"_blank\">George W. Bush<\/a> won two terms as president. Perry was a contender for president twice \u2014 losing his footing in the limelight in 2011 and then never quite finding his traction four years later. But he is undeniably a national figure.<\/p>\n<p>Now Abbott wants to lead the states into a constitutional confrontation with the national government \u2014 a struggle that could put him in the center ring of U.S. politics whether he wins or loses.<\/p>\n<p>The governor would like to <a href=\"http:\/\/static.texastribune.org\/media\/documents\/Restoring_The_Rule_Of_Law_01082016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">add nine amendments<\/a> to the U.S. Constitution. In his words:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one state.<\/li>\n<li>Require Congress to balance its budget.<\/li>\n<li>Prohibit administrative agencies \u2014 and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them \u2014\u00a0from creating federal law.<\/li>\n<li>Prohibit administrative agencies \u2014 and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them \u2014\u00a0from pre-empting state law.<\/li>\n<li>Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a U.S. Supreme Court decision.<\/li>\n<li>Require a seven-justice supermajority vote for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law.<\/li>\n<li>Restore the balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution.<\/li>\n<li>Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds.<\/li>\n<li>Allow a two-thirds majority of the states to override a federal law or regulation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The current popularity of federalism and state&#8217;s rights isn\u2019t new, and Abbott was presenting his proposal to an audience that has already expressed an interest.<\/p>\n<p>Perry\u2019s 2010 book \u2014\u00a0Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington \u2014\u00a0was copyrighted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Abbott presented his idea at that group\u2019s annual convention.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Perry\u2019s acknowledgements in that book listed a bunch of advisers who are now in the Abbott circle, including political consultant Dave Carney and Daniel Hodge, Abbott\u2019s chief of staff. Chip Roy, now the first assistant to Texas Attorney General <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/ken-paxton\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ken Paxton<\/a>, was Perry\u2019s ghostwriter.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t fault Abbott\u2019s timing, if sparking a national conversation is his goal. The Texas Republican primary is on March 1 \u2014 less than eight weeks from now \u2014 and the party\u2019s nomination for president is unsettled. Those candidates will be pressed to talk about the idea of changing the Constitution, making the states stronger and making the federal government weaker.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re already talking. U.S. Sen. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/ted-cruz\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ted Cruz<\/a> of Texas told reporters in Iowa that he\u2019s going to push for \u201cquite a few\u201d constitutional amendments if he\u2019s elected president. He wasn\u2019t working from Abbott\u2019s list, but the idea of changing the nation\u2019s charter is clearly on conservative minds. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2016\/01\/06\/marco-rubio-constitutional-convention-editorials-debates\/78368672\/\" target=\"_blank\">was the first this year to float the idea of a constitutional convention<\/a>. He is promoting term limits for judges and members of Congress and a budget-balancing amendment, too.<\/p>\n<p>Previous efforts to add amendments like those have fallen short in the normal machinery of constitutional changes. Two-thirds of each house of Congress has to approve, and then the states choose whether to ratify; at least 38 of them have to go along or the amendment fails.<\/p>\n<p>Presidential candidates can talk about it, but presidents don\u2019t have much to do with whether there will be a convention. Abbott\u2019s proposing to go another way, spelled out in the Constitution but never used: Two-thirds of the states can call a convention and push Congress out of the way.<\/p>\n<p>The public would have to be stirred up. It would take some cajoling, some speechmaking and not a small amount of leadership \u2014\u00a0inside and outside the inner sanctums of politics and government.<\/p>\n<p>Played with some skill and some luck, it\u2019s the kind of project that could make a guy a national figure.<\/p>\n<p><em>Disclosure: The Texas Public Policy Foundation has been a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/support-us\/donors-and-members\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Texas governor called on his fellow provincial leaders to assemble for a constitutional convention that would, as he sees it, empower the state governments and constrain the federal government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2260,2261,116],"class_list":["post-115030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-texas","tag-u-s-constitution","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}