The founders built two ways to amend the Constitution. Congress can propose amendments — that’s how all 27 got here so far. Or two-thirds of state legislatures can apply for a convention, bypassing Congress entirely. Madison explained in Federalist No. 43 that the amendment process was designed so both the federal government and the states could “originate the amendment of errors.” He was describing our current situation with more precision than he probably intended.
Congress has run a deficit in 21 of the last 25 years. The national debt crossed $39 trillion in June 2026, at a rate of roughly $8 billion per day. Annual interest payments now exceed $1 trillion — more than Medicaid, and $35,000 every second. Every serious proposal to address this through a balanced budget requirement, term limits, or spending caps has died in the institution that would have to propose it. You don’t need a political science degree to identify the conflict of interest.
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What Article V actually says
Article V provides states a second path. When two-thirds of state legislatures (34 states) apply for a convention, Congress must call it. Whatever the convention proposes still requires ratification by 38 states — 13 states can block anything radical. The republic has survived 27 amendments under this process. The safeguard works.
Hamilton addressed the “runaway convention” fear directly in Federalist No. 85: the ratification requirement is the protection. A convention proposing something extreme that 38 states immediately ratify, including the 13 with reason to refuse, is not a realistic threat. It’s a talking point used by the political class that benefits most from the status quo.
Where things stand
The Convention of States Project targets fiscal restraints, limits on federal power, and term limits. Twenty states have passed the resolution — Kansas became the 20th in early 2026. Fourteen more are needed.
The obstacles are real. Massachusetts rescinded its applications in November 2025. The counting methodology — applications vary in wording and some date back decades — remains disputed. The founders made the process complicated on purpose.
The balanced budget problem
Forty-nine states operate under some form of balanced budget requirement. The federal government operates under none. A balanced budget amendment has been introduced in nearly every Congress for 30 years. The closest it came was 1995: the House passed it 300-132; the Senate fell one vote short. The debt has since grown from $5 trillion to $39 trillion. The members who would vote for the amendment are the same members who vote for the budgets it would constrain.
What citizens can do
The Convention of States needs 14 more state legislatures. State legislators are the most accessible elected officials in the country — most represent 30,000 to 80,000 constituents and read constituent mail. A legislator who receives 50 calls on one topic notices. Five hundred changes his vote.
Find out whether your state has passed the resolution at the Convention of States website. If it hasn’t, contact your state representative directly — by phone or letter, not a digital petition. Show up at state legislative hearings; they’re public and rarely crowded. When someone raises the runaway convention objection, the answer is one sentence: 38 states must ratify anything the convention proposes.
I’m a financial professional, not a community organizer. Thirty years of institutional advisory work has taught me that structural problems don’t fix themselves — they compound. A $39 trillion debt growing at $8 billion a day won’t be corrected by the institution that created it. The founders left us the tool.
SOCIAL SECURITY INSOLVENCY IS HERE
Edmund Burke wrote that society is a partnership between the living, the dead, and those yet to be born. The debt is a breach of that partnership. The amendment process is how citizens enforce it.
Find your state legislator. Make the call. The founders left you this option because they expected you to use it.
Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management. He has a BS from Northeastern University and has completed postgraduate studies at UCLA, UPENN, and Harvard. He writes about issues in finance, constitutional law, national security, human nature, and public policy.
