Bruce westerman discusses the western wildfires, Climate Change, and other news of the day. Good morning. It is thursday, september 17, 2020, Constitution Day in the United States. This morning on the washington journal we will begin by asking you how you would amend the constitution if it were up to you today. Give us your ideas on how you think we the people may benefit on a change from the founding documents dating back to september 17. If youre in the mountain are pacific time zone, the number to call is 202 7488001. You can send us a text, 202 7488003. If you do come include your name and where you are from. Otherwise, catch up with us on twitter or on facebook. To you. Rsday morning officially known as Constitution Day and citizenship day in the United States. We are talking this morning about the u. S. Constitution. Some history is your calling in 1787, delegates opened their Constitutional Convention on may 25, 1787 in philadelphia to begin discussions on how to create a constitution and replace the articles of confederation. Less than four months later the u. S. Constitution was approved on39 of the 40 two delegates september 17, 1787. I june of 1788 the constitution became effective when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it. How would you amend it if it were up to you today . We split our phone lines up regionally. Eastern or central time zones, 202 7488000. Mountain or specific time zones, 202 7488001. We will get right to your calls. Morning. How would you amend the constitution . Caller can you hear me . I would amend the constitution by adding a provision that would compensate descendents of slaves whom labor has built america and Free Education and free medical and compensation for things that produced america and made her the financial giant she is. It was the cotton that financed america. It was not indigenous servitude, it was child slavery. That is with the amendment should be, to compensate those who are descendents of slaves, who slavery built this country. Host with that be a onetime thing, or how often with the compensation last for . Caller it wouldnt necessarily be a onetime thing. It could be programs. It could be returning some of the farmland that was taken and given adequate compensation for. It could be educational programs. It could be summer youth programs, which those programs have died out. At moret throwing money social issues, but financing things that have been neglected. Host carlin providence, rhode island. How would you amend the u. S. Constitution . Caller good morning. This is carl. Amendment to the constitution. The president has two terms. Im listening. The president has two terms. Caller the president has two terms. They should therefore, senators should have two terms and the house number 62 year terms to even things out. Terms to evenr things out. The entire government is bought and paid for by coastal elite wealthy individuals on both sides of the coast. Elite andt de hollywood elites own these congressmen lock, stock, and barrel. Host one concern brought up on the others have term limits is if members are forced to leave after a certain amount of time even if their constituents like them it seeds more control of theore control government to the bureaucracy not elected, individuals in the agencies, career individuals who gain more influence and control over the process rather than the folks directly responsible to the voters. What would you say that . Caller i respectfully disagree. If that were the case, these people behind the scenes would have had what i wanted to have enacted a long time ago. With that. Y disagree the socalled deep state, for example, it is quite obviously to overthrow donald trump. Its obvious, but they are hiding it. They tried to overthrow the man, because when he won no one expected him to win. I didnt vote for him, i wrote in ted cruzs name. But the Democratic Party, to be candid, a lot of republican and ,ommentators are afraid to say the Democratic Party has been andn over by cultural firstline communists. Host several of your tweets and Text Messages are already coming in. This from stephanie out of michigan, the Electoral College must be taken down. Popular vote will give us the leadership we need. From wichita, kansas, i would amend the constitution so children born of noncitizens are not automatic citizens, they are citizens of the parents country of origin. Is an arm. Ne what can i own a nuclear bomb . That is an arm. And we may see some lefties on the washington journal wanting to amend article two and calls for term limit restrictions. That is his call. This, asking you on constitution and citizenship day how would you amend the constitution if it were up to you . Ae most likely way constitution would be amended is it would require a two thirds vote in both houses, and the amendment would be ratified by three quarters of state legislatures, though there are other ways to amend it as well that calls for Constitutional Conventions and such. If it were simply up to you, how would you amend the constitution . Ennis from seattle, washington. Are you with us . Turn down your television and just speak through your phone. Caller ok. Host how would you amend the constitution, dennis . Caller i didnt realize it was you. The first i would like to ensure we passed the equal acts and we are done to help get that going in the 1970s and im tired of waiting on it. Since i got a chance to be on the phone, i would also like to do something to negate citizens united. You say you worked on equal rights amendments in the day. How so . Caller when i was in college helping campaigns to do the ratification process. Host talk about what that was like back in your day in college. Caller i was in eastern people notfor familiar with our state. Divide. An east west it is still conservative, but it was ultraconservative then. Challenging [laughter]. Host is it more challenging today when it comes to the equal rights amendment . Caller i just dont understand now that we have the requisite number of states why it cant be ratified. Putting a time limit to it was unprecedented in the first place, and i dont know why that wasnt deemed unconstitutional in and of itself. I wasnt following what the aclu might have been trying to do with that at the time. I didnt think it would be such a problem. Oft that is dennis out seattle. This is george out of leavenworth, kansas. Caller i would like to see the line item veto added to the constitution. I believe if you look at whats happened here in the United States just since the first of this year, a lot of the arguments that are heard out of congress and the funding issues seem to be of a partisan nature more than anything else. Is ok, but the ideas there is always something that each side, conservatives and liberals, want to throw in there that has nothing to do with the issue at hand. I believe the line item veto may help alleviate some of that. It might stop some of the arguing over issues since both sides know whatever the item is will be vetoed the president of the United States. Any worry that a president may abuse that, president you may not agree with, and taking out parts of legislation you do agree with . Caller my worry is that that already happens in congress. Host thanks for the call from kansas. Taking your calls on phone lines regionally, eastern and central 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific, 202 7488001. Writing about the constitution this week in various papers around the country. Is being the week that there is often a lot of education on the constitution coming on the week of Constitution Day. Is the heritage foundations president. We column, never before have had to defend the constitution like we have today. This is what she writes towards the end of her column that came out this week. What weve seen happening in our country today shows us why we cant neglect teaching younger generations about the constitution, and why we cant leave it in the hands of others. The observance of Constitution Day gives us the opportunity to fight the fiction of those trying to rewrite our history and to dedicate ourselves to educating future generations for how a limited form of government protects their freedoms, creates unparalleled prosperity, and opportunity for all citizens. We must do all we can to protect our constitution so it can continue to protect all of us. It is in the times leader. One more free you from elizabeth , the president of the Constitution Accountability Center in washington, d. C. Writing for inside sources. Com. Kenosha, wisconsin, minneapolis, washington, d. C. , and countless cities and towns in between people are taking to the streets, the ballot box, and taking our leaders to task. They are demanding our nation lives up to promises aid in our amended constitution, equality, justice, the right to vote free from discrimination, leaders accountable to the rule of law. We have seen all too often political leaders and institutions will fail us, but our constitution begins with we the people. We are the source of its strength and the wellspring of its meaning. Only we can do the hard work of giving it life and protecting it for generations who follow us. I believe we will. The president of the constitutional accountability center. We will take you through a few more of those pieces throughout this first hour. We want to hear from you how you would amend the constitution if it were up to you. Cheryl and saint augustine, florida. Caller good morning. I think a lot of our problems could be solved if in the very beginning of the constitution instead of where it says all men are created equal we simply change the word men to people. Constitution the begins is we the people of the United States in order to form a more public union promote the welfare, the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity to ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of america. Caller and what follows after that . Host we go right into article one. Legislative power herein shall be invested in a congress of the United States which shall senate and a house of representatives, then goes into the house makeup. Are you thinking about the declaration . Caller where does it say all men are created equal . Host the declaration of independence. Caller that is what i am referring to. Host how would you amend the constitution . How we form this government . How this Government Works . Caller if we changed the word an to people we would have lot of things that we had to go back and change and make additional amendments to the constitution simply. Two words, the difference between people and men makes a whole lot of difference. Thats all i gotta say about it. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. For the u. S. Senate in the u. S. House of representatives and the , all of them should be two to sit no more than four year terms or a total of eight years. Host you dont think any senator should be reelected . Caller not like that because we have career politicians and special interests in there for decades and decades and it becomes a cesspool of degeneration. Of new york. Caller that gentleman said what i was going to say. I dont think anyone should be more than eight years. It is absolutely correct. Politics is not a lifelong job. You are not going to be a politician. I think all of them should be relegated to eight years of service, just like the president , and then we find someone else. Host woodhouse members be reelected every two years . Caller eight years. Why do you have someone in the house for 30 years, 60 years . Thats absolutely ridiculous. Been the constitution has invoked many times in the campaign trail, the election 2020. I wanted to show you two recent examples. Vice president mike pence earlier in wisconsin talking up the president s record on judicial appointments. [video clip] pense we have appointed more than 200 judges at the federal they are all principled conservatives who will support the godgiven liberties and trying to narrow constitution, like the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. PenceVice President mike earlier this week. Also earlier this week we were talking to Pennsylvania State , one of theve keynote speakers at the dnc last month. He invoked the constitution talking about why he supports joe biden for president. [video clip] one person who has really looked at the constitution and the other person, consistently, joe biden, talks about how he can take the things that america says about ourselves and make them real in our lifetime. That is the choice we have. When the Vice President talks about the soul of the nation he is also talking about the future for young families like my own. The future for folks all across the country. Host state representative Malcolm Kenyatta from earlier this week. You can watch the event or the event featuring Vice President mike pence at cspan. Org. How would you amend the constitution . Caller good morning. Somewhere that we can circumvent congress as far as their compensations. They arent think worth 180,000 a year. How can you parlay a sixfigure income into an eight figure Retirement Fund . If there is any amendments to be done, it is concerning compensation or withdrawing compensation. Aocnt like someone like putting in her three terms and being able to retire and it comes out of my taxes. Their retirements odd to be coming out of the areas they represent, not everyone in the u. S. That is my comment for the day. Host what do you think the job of a house member or senator is worth . What would you pay them per year . Caller they need to be paying us for the privilege. They are supposed to be servants. They should be making servants wages. Host whenever this idea of pay increases of Congress Comes up, one of the arguments is that the compensation is too low and it is up to you to determine when it is too low. Only wealthy people can run for congress and our government is run by only the wealthiest in the country. That has been one of the arguments for those who argue to increase the salary of members of congress. How did that argument fly with you . Caller not very well. I will go back to one instance. Had amber when chris dodd the energyople from industry, primarily the oil industry, and chris dodd criticized one of the ceos and where iish i had a job didnt know how many millions in compensation i would be making. That disappointed me, because he should have come back to senator dodd saying, i wish i had a job where i could vote myself a raise whenever i felt like it. Kind of figuring how all this works, but that is my general thoughts on it for the day. I realize you have other callers. Thank you for your time. Host rob is next out of new york. Caller good morning. Congratulations for getting to host today. Host that is a colleague of mine, but i will pass on that congratulations. Caller as far as the constitution, there needs to be something about lobbying. The lobbying stuff that has been going on supersedes the u. S. Weple, what we want, what need in order to have a healthy society. When lobbyists get in there and the politicians do whatever the lobbyists want, whether it is big oil or pharma or whoever. They need to have something about truth in media. The stuff that the media says not you guys but cnn, the networks, half of the stuff they more, is propaganda and it bends peoples minds to believe something that isnt true. That should be amended somehow. Host both of your points are addressed in the First Amendment. I want to get your thoughts on it. The First Amendment has the freedom of the press and it. When we talk to lobbyists on this program we ask them about their job. I remember one lobbyist saying that his job of being a lobbyist is in the First Amendment at the very end where it says congress respecting theaw establishment of religion or prohibition of the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech, the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, or petition the government for redress of grievances. That is where he says being a lobbyist is in the first tondment, that his job is petition the government on behalf of the citizens for redress of their grievances on topics. Caller i dont believe it. It has been perverted by money. We have chuck schumer, he is my senator, and in all the years he has been in office he has done nothing for the people who live here. The only people he helps are the arms dealers like lockheed martin. As far as the rest of us, upstate new york is shrinking. People are leaving in droves because we are being taxed out of existence. The people who work at lockheed and other companies are the ones making out really good. The lobbyists, it corrupts our system something terrible. The politicians arent working for us, they are working for their special interests. Host that is rob out of new york. A few more of your comments from Text Messages, facebook, and twitter. Joe out of mississippi saying i would definitely amend the contribution for contributions from super pacs and term limits from congress. 15 years of prime court judge terms and 15 year judge Appellate Court terms. The 17thng appeal amendment. The house must protect the rights of the people come the house must protect the rights of the state. Strip the states of their rights is what stew says. Andie saying fiat money article one section eight gives power to coin money and regulate the value of both u. S. And foreign coins. It does not explicitly and unambiguously grant congress the power to print paper money or make it legal. Just a few of the comments on our twitter and facebook feeds and via. Hope you join the conversation, especially with your phone calls. 202 7488000