Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

How long will it take for the states to ratify such an amendment? History says that IF Constitutional amendments are eventually adopted, it can take a very long time for state ratification to occur. Do you realize that it took 202 years for the original Article I to be ratified?

Very few of the Constitutional amendments passed by the Congress ever get ratified. Do you realize that the Equal Rights amendment, the Child Labor Law amendment, even the original Bill of Rights have never been ratified by the required number of states?

Then there's the question of whether the required three-quarters of the states would vote for such an amendment. It would take 38 states to ratify such an amendment. Only 12 states failing to ratify would make all this sturm and drang a decade-long exercise in futility. Want to start counting the states that would almost certainly fail to ratify the amendment? Start with New York, New Jersey, Illinois, California, Florida...what's that, five already?

Wouldn't it be more effective to continue to get fiscal conservatives elected to the Congress, then nick away at the defict and debt...maybe even hack away at it...over a longer period of time, doing less damage to the economy than an ill-thought out action such as the Cut, Cap and Balance bill (which includes the requirement for a Constitutional amendment) would have?