Ron DeSantis Rebuffs Concern The Budget Amendment Leaves Constitution ‘At Risk’ For Further Change

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During an event with Gov. Brad Little (R-ID) in the Idaho State Capitol in Boise, Idaho on Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) discussed the long-term implications of the Balanced Budged Amendment on the Constitution.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

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00:00One, I don't believe that that's accurate.

00:14Just think, the Founding Fathers put Article V in for a reason.

00:18Why would they, one, have put a mechanism to undo what they worked so hard in Philadelphia

00:24to create?

00:25They understood that there'd be a time where the governing class was just insulated from

00:30the best interests of the country, and that you would need to have some constitutional

00:34reform that didn't require the people or the states to go through that same governing class.

00:40I would remind people, the Constitution was created by the states, and the federal government

00:45was created by the states, not the other way around.

00:48Second, I don't think it will actually come to that, because I really believe history

00:53has shown, once there's momentum behind this, Congress sees the writing on the wall, I

00:58do think they would write an amendment and send it to the states for ratification, because

01:02they want to be able to control that amendment.

01:05And I think states like Idaho and Florida, if it's a good amendment, will be happy to

01:09ratify it.

01:10If they play games with it, I'm not going to amend the Constitution lightly.

01:13So I think you're going to do that, and I fully expect it to happen.

01:16But let's just say you get 34 and you trigger it.

01:19I can tell you in Florida, when we did our convention call for this amendment, we have

01:25limitations on what the delegates can do.

01:27I as governor can recall people, I mean, just think about it.

01:31If someone in one of our states got up for a balanced budget amendment convention and

01:36they said, whoa, we really want to look at reigning in the second amendment, I would

01:41have those people on the plane to Tallahassee before they could even get those words out

01:45of their mouth.

01:46It would not happen.

01:47So you put criminal penalties in for delegates that go wayward.

01:51So I don't think that there's a real risk of that, because you can take appropriate

01:55action to ensure that the subject matter at hand is what is debated.

01:59But even if somehow all that didn't work out, you need 38 states to ratify any changes to

02:06the Constitution.

02:08Is there anybody believing with the majority of states in this country being red states

02:12that you would see things like the second amendment or some of these things that would

02:16be whittled away?

02:17There is no way that can pass muster.

02:20The only reason I'm a supporter of balanced budget amendment, I'm also a supporter of

02:24term limits through this route, but both of those have strong support from the public,

02:29because people understand that the trajectory is bad fiscally.

02:33They also understand Congress should be limited in terms.

02:36So there's different reasons to do it.

02:38But there's no way any of that stuff could get 38 states to ratify.

02:43So I don't think it will come to even going it.

02:45I do think Congress will pass one, even if you did.

02:49There's plenty of ways where you can offer protections to make sure that they're focusing

02:53on the task at hand.

02:54And keep in mind, when the founders did the original convention in 1787 in Philly, they

03:00did it in secret.

03:02They met to revise and extend the articles.

03:04They went.

03:05There was no media.

03:06There was no anything.

03:07Obviously, different era in terms of digital.

03:08There wasn't any of that.

03:09But they didn't even have anybody who could write an article and put out a pamphlet.

03:15That would not fly nowadays.

03:16I mean, obviously, this would be publicly broadcast, and everyone would be able to see.

03:20It's not like you're just going to go and do some convention and burrow in there, and

03:25no one know what you're doing.

03:26So I don't think it's a real risk.

03:27And I think the people that say somehow the whole thing would melt down, they're basically

03:32saying that the founding fathers were wrong to give the people in the states an ability

03:36to restrain the federal Congress.

03:39And I don't think they were wrong to do that.

03:40I think they understood Congress could be the problem.

03:42We met with the legislators earlier, and so you hear a lot of talk about the debt and

03:48the fiscal, obviously, as a big problem.

03:51You also hear a lot of talk, and I totally agree with this, and I know most of the people

03:55in Idaho do, about the growth of the bureaucracy and the administrative state, and how can

04:00a bureaucrat be spending tax dollars through USAID to promote transgenderism in Bangladesh?

04:08How is that something that could ever be thought of as appropriate?

04:11Even the courts, how judges are issuing these nationwide injunctions to restrain the president

04:17from doing really core Article II responsibilities, in this case, transporting illegal alien gang

04:23members back to their country of Oregon, or at least El Salvador as a holding area.

04:27All of those problems, the root is the fecklessness of the modern Congress.

04:34Congress has the power of the purse.

04:35They don't have to do continuing resolutions that empower the bureaucracy.

04:39They could use the power of the purse to restrain the bureaucracy.

04:42They haven't been willing to do it.

04:44Congress can limit the jurisdiction of the federal courts.

04:47They have plenary authority to do that in the Constitution.

04:51They don't do that.

04:52I know that they'll complain about when courts do this, but they don't take the action necessary,

04:57and then, of course, they've chosen to pile on the debt.

05:00I just think Congress, as an institution, particularly over the last 20 years, has really

05:06gone off the rails, and I think the founders understood there would be need for the states

05:10to step in and offer some reforms.

05:13To that point, all those concerns, I've been here for a while, got across my mind, but

05:21the absolute desperate nature and the magnitude of it, the minimal risk of what happens if

05:29it goes to there.

05:30We don't even think it's going to get to 34 votes.

05:33We think things are going to happen.

05:35There's all those sidebars, all those guardrails we can put on those, but then what's the alternative?

05:44Do we want our federal debt to go to $70 trillion and consume all of the capital and basically

05:52burden our children, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren?

05:57I think there's no other usable option, and our forefathers put it in the Constitution

06:04for a reason.

06:05And also, I made the point earlier, it's like, let's just say something popped out that was

06:10really, really bad.

06:11Literally, it would take us an afternoon.

06:13I could call Brad, I could call GN40, I could call Kemp, I can call these governors and

06:17say, this is bad.

06:19We put out a thing with our legislative leaders saying no, and it would die.

06:24Immediately we would be able to rally 13 states.

06:27I think the risk is so infinitesimally small compared to what Governor Little points out,

06:34the big risk of continuing on our current course and what that means.

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