This one caught me by surprise.  Georgia is about to pass a resolution in State Legislature joining 19 other States who have already done so which would force a Federal Constitutional Convention to take up the drafting of an amendment to require the Federal Budget be balanced.  Once drafted, it would require the Congress to vote on it.  Our governor believes that the required 2/3 of the States will pass the necessary resolution during the next year and believes that eventual ratification will take place thus taking a substantial amount of power away from the US Congress to spend money they don't have.

Interesting.

75% of them have to actually approve it for it to become law. To date, this has never happened.

There's 2 ways of amending the constitution.

1) Congress votes on it plus two thirds of the states agree or

2) 3/4ths of the states agree and leave Congress out of the matter.

To date it's only been done the first way.

The budget issue is really obnoxious. The only reason why Congress is allowed to borrow money is to deal with emergencies (and this is part of the danger of a balanced budget amendment). We've had massive debts ever since Reagan gave the rich a 50% tax cut. Enough already.

Not likely to happen. In a worst case scenario, if the States got close, Congress would propose the amendment. Why? Because if a Convention to Propose Amendments to the Constitution is called, it may not be able to be limited to the one issue. They would not want to risk amendments regarding term limits, abortion, gay marriage, making English the official language, citizenship (illegal immigration), etc.

FYI: 34 states would have to call for the convention, and any amendments would go directly to the States for ratification. Congress would have no vote on the matter.

Thanks for the enlightenment.  I wondered why our governor was so sure in his statement that Congress could not stop this action if 2/3s of the States signed on.  I didn't realize Congress has no vote on it.  Gives a whole new meaning to the term, "end run".  LOL

1) Congress votes on it plus two thirds of the states agree or

2) 3/4ths of the states agree and leave Congress out of the matter.

On number 2 the 3/4 states also has a time limit. So if after so many years the 3/4 isn't reached the admendant or has no force of law.

while were picking fly shit out of pepper that there will probably be a time limit imposed.

Thanks for the clearifiation.