Contact: Chris Taylor
608-266-5342
Madison, Wisconsin – Yesterday, Republican legislators voted to blow open the U.S. Constitution by advancing a series of bills that call for a convention to amend the federal constitution, which hasn’t been convened since 1787. Pushed by out-of-state corporations, billionaires and right-wing groups including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), this scheme ultimately seeks to knee cap the federal government, decimate social safety nets, and roll back environmental and civil rights protections. Yesterday’s vote makes Wisconsin the 28th state, out of the 34 needed, to call for a constitutional convention. In response, Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison) issued the following statement:
“Let me get this straight – Republicans control the legislative and executive branches both here in Wisconsin and nationally, yet rather than actually leading, they are opting for this nuclear budget scheme? This effort is not about a “balanced budget”, but is actually an organized effort to hamstring the federal government by rolling back the ability of the federal government to ensure clean drinking water protections, protect individual rights, and maintain our most valued social safety nets like social security. I know that’s the plan, because I was at the 2013 ALEC meeting when a group founded by the co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots and bankrolled by the Koch Brothers rolled out an initiative to gut the federal constitution! And the leader of this effort here in Wisconsin was sitting just rows in front of me.
“If Republicans really wanted to get serious about balanced budgets, they wouldn’t take billions of dollars from hard working Wisconsinites and give it to their wealthy friends and big special interests, like the $3 billion in cash they are taking from every Wisconsin household to give to Foxconn, a foreign corporation run by a Taiwanese billionaire. Republicans should stop these scams and leave their hands off the federal constitution.”
