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A Constitutional Cure?

Structural changes via constitutional amendments will make necessary policy changes to rein in the federal government sufficient to endure, and cure. The COS movement is all about that!

Free Society is a quarterly publication of the Cato Institute, a free market and liberty-oriented policy think tank headquartered in Washington, DC. An open letter to them that I wrote was published on the Convention of States Action blog. It was later published in Free Society's Letters to the Editor in the Spring 2025 online edition, and titled “A Constitutional Cure?” You can read it below, which with their permission, was republished here. It's available at this link on their website. Scroll down to the third letter.

The goal in writing to them was to advocate for structural changes to accompany and support their recommended changes in policy positions. Those policy changes are necessary, but as examples in my letter show, they are insufficient alone. Unless structural changes are also made via constitutional amendments, the changes will be ignored or overturned. I suggest they and Free Society's authors promote necessary AND sufficient changes, that will endure and be sustained. Join us in the COS movement to advocate for sufficient structural change via constitutional amendments that actually limit Congress, the President, and federal government officials.

===== A Constitutional Cure? =====

Peter Spung, Convention of States NC District Captain and State Content Writer, Raleigh, NC

The roots of liberty at Cato resonate strongly in Free Society, and your message of “individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace” resounds throughout.

As a patriot and fellow journeyer in the liberty movement, may I suggest that you consider posing this question of the authors and articles: “Is it necessary, yet insufficient?” Cato and Free Society’s policy prescriptions are often necessary and accurate but insufficient alone to address DC’s bureaucracy and spending. Additional structural limits are needed for sufficiency and sustainability. Please allow me to illustrate with two articles from the Winter 2024 edition.

“A Road Map for Reform: 10 Policy Priorities for the New Congress” is a guide for sound governance. Many thanks to the authors! Slashing taxes, limiting debt, reducing federal costs, lowering health care prices, reforming Social Security, restoring sound monetary policy, reforming legal immigration, auditing government-induced guilty pleas, applying low intervention to AI, and preventing a central bank digital currency are excellent policy ideas. These necessary changes must be led by Congress but are insufficient alone. After future elections or changes in administrations, policy gains will be lost or overturned unless they are made permanent through structural changes via constitutional amendments.

The Article V Convention of States movement shows that the Framers of our Constitution were structuralists aware of human nature’s timeless attraction to power. They created structures in checks and balances to diffuse and restrain this power. Supporting liberty, individual rights, and free enterprise requires structural limits on the federal government. Constitutional amendments provide these limits, as seen in many positive historical examples—see “The Lamp of Experience: Constitutional Amendments Work” or this short video summary.

Despite super-majority polling support for decades among We the People, Congress has not and presumably will never limit its power through term limits or budget controls. In practice, Congress continually exhibits deceitful governance by passing numerous self-restricting laws, such as the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, the Budget Control Act of 2011, and the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, only to exceed and violate them. The Kabuki theater and faux drama of debt limit brinksmanship and government shutdown threats add insult to injury. Since Congress fails to govern responsibly, We the People, through the states, must amend the Constitution with structural limits on the federal government as per Article V. This will make the policy priorities in “Road Map for Reform” sufficient and sustainable.

“Reining in the Imperial Presidency: A Plan for Repealing Harmful Executive Orders” highlights the need for structural limits to prevent the president from bypassing Congress via executive orders (EOs). Cato’s EO handbook identifies and revokes EOs that undermine individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. However, EOs by one president are often overturned by the next, leaving We the People with little voice. Structural amendments could limit presidential influence by requiring Congress to review and approve EOs with impacts over $100 million. These laws (in another form, EOs are mainly enforceable regulations) requiring spending and appropriations are Congress’s responsibility, not the president’s.

Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. Cato has recommended, and Congress has enacted, necessary policies and plans repeatedly, with insufficient results—“Necessary, Yet Insufficient.” The federal debt and unfunded liabilities grow, DC bureaucracy constantly expands, and We the People’s liberties diminish through regulation and overreach. Besides Cato’s necessary proposals, please make them sufficient: Advocate for calling an Article V Convention of States to propose permanent structural limits in the Constitution via amendments. This will create a path to responsible and sane federal governance. We the People, and the growing millions in the Convention of States grassroots movement, will be forever grateful to you.

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Created:	2025-07-29 17:19 GMT
Updated:	2025-07-29 17:58 GMT
Published:	2025-07-29 17:58 GMT
Converted:	2025-11-11 12:06 GMT
Change Author:	Peter Spung
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