In the past few weeks, California Governor Jerry Brown has phoned five members of TIME'S Board of Economists. Why, he asked, did they oppose his call for a constitutional convention to devise an amendment that would force Congress to balance the budget? Recalls one of the economists: "When you say to him, 'Look, it just doesn't make a damn bit of sense,' his comeback is, 'Yes, but I want some amendment in the Constitution that reflects fiscal responsibility.' " The California legislature, by a vote of 12 to 8 in its ways and means committee, declined last week to join the...
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