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02/03
By RICK PLUTA
   LANSING, Mich. (UPI) -- Michigan lawmakers are poised to renew
the drive to convene a constitutional convention for the purpose of
drafting federal balanced budget amendment.
   Following a sometimes loud and boisterous meeting, the Senate
State Affairs Committee approved a resolutution that would bring
Michigan into the column of states asking Congress to call a
convention. There are currently 29 states with active resolutions
seeking the convention. If two thirds of the states, that is 34,
formally ask Congress for a convention, the Constitution requires it
be held.
   The measure cleared the panel by a 3-2 vote and will likely be
voted on next week by the full Senate. Backers say it would force
the federal government to finally deal with the deficit, projected
to exceed $300 billion this year, but critics raised a plethora of
complaints that it would force tax increases and allow delegates to
tinker with other portions of the document.
   Sen. Gil DiNello, R-Eastpointe, the sponsor of the resolution and
chairman of the Senate State Affairs Committee, said the federal
government should be covered by the same type of rules that require
most states to match spending with revenues.
   "The fact is in Michigan we have a balanced budget amendment and
we abide by it every year," he said.
   Opposition to the plan has split political conservatives and
welded some, like Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly and
Conservative Caucus Chairman Howard Phillips, to organizations like
Common Cause and the American Civil Liberties Union.
   Phillips was among the critics who said Congress would only lay
down "automatic annual tax increases" to deal with a mandate to
balance the budget.
   "We don't need an amendment to balance the budget," he said. "We
need a President who will propose such a budget brought about by
spending cuts."
   No state has approved a resolution for a balanced budget
convention in over 10 years, Schlafly said, while at least three
states have revoked their call for a convention.
   The resolution cleared by the panel would require the delegates
to a convention to stick to the question of balancing the budget.
Schlafly said that they would be too tempted to include more
amendments, though, dealing perhaps with abortion, gun control, term
limits and the line item veto among others.
   "Senators, you understand politics," she told the panel. "It
simply is not credible that these politically active groups would
pass up the chance to force a constitutional convention to vote out
their special amendment."
   Dozens of citizens, most opposed, packed the hearing room for the
three-hour hearing. But many were still cut off when DiNello banged
the gavel on public comments. Several of them walked out of the
hearing just before the vote, yelling at the lawmakers.
   "Traitor," one irate man screamed at DiNello.
    State Senate candidate George Matousek of Bentley had to be
escorted from the chamber at the end of the meeting for refusing to
stay silent for the vote. In testimony, he said a constitutional
conventional would seek to impose gun control on the nation. He even
threatened violence should a convention take place.
   "The only thing saving us is our guns and our Constitution," he
said. "... They're not going to get the guns; they're going to get
the bullets."
   Matousek is running in the March Democratic primary to fill the
seat left vacant by the election Sen. James Barcia, D-Bay City, to
Congress.